Mischief Equals Mayhem
by Hilaire
Summary: LESSON 11 FINALLY UP! When Narumi was tasked to look after a senior student, he never realized how tough it would be. Well, until she kissed him. Set one year after the anime. Student/teacher. Narumi-centric.
1. An Explosive Beginning

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Gakuen Alice.**  
Claimer: **This fan fiction and the OCs are mine.

This story follows only the anime, and takes place after its timeline – roughly a year after Mikan's arrival. The interpretation of Narumi presented in this fic is my own, and has been drawn up based entirely on the anime. I _don't_ read the manga, so please overlook any inconsistencies with it that will undoubtedly turn up.

Luna Ishihara is an original character I made up. She's different from and has no connection whatsoever to the Luna in the manga.

* * *

**Mischief Equals Mayhem**

When Narumi was tasked to look after a senior high school student, he never realized how tough it would be.  
Well, until she kissed him.

* * *

**Lesson One**

**An Explosive Beginning**

"Did you oversleep again?"

Narumi regarded his friend good-naturedly, an easy smile gracing his lips. "Good morning, Misaki. Did you _undersleep _ again?"

Misaki could only shake his head at his best friend's flippant attitude. It was a fine Tuesday morning, and Narumi was late – as usual. "The administrators have been asking for you since this morning."

"It's still morning, Misaki," Narumi pointed out, taking his place behind his desk. "What did they want?" he continued, dismissing Misaki's irritated scowl from across the room.

"You're assigned to look after a certain Luna Ishihara," Misaki said, walking over to his desk so he could give Narumi an envelope. "Here."

"Luna Ishihara?" he repeated, in a tone that was more clueless than Misaki would have wanted. With a curious quirk of his eyebrows he opened the file, noting that it was sealed: definitely for him only.

Inside, along with undoubtedly important documents, was a photograph of Luna Ishihara, smiling like she was guilty of mankind's deadliest sin. Her long hair was black; her spirited eyes an impossibly brilliant shade of gray. With a playful incline of her head, the young woman gave the impression of well-founded arrogance; like there was something wicked known only to her.

Narumi cracked a smile, unable to help but wonder what _exactly _ that something could be. "So what has Luna Ishihara done to catch the Academy's fancy?" he asked.

Misaki looked at him thoughtfully. "Luna Ishihara arrived here a couple of weeks ago, preceded by her troublemaking schemes in the previous schools she had attended," he started. "The Academy hadn't taken all of it seriously, and had never intended to watch her closely – until on her first day, when she blew something up during Chemistry class."

Narumi thought this over for a few moments. "It could have been an accident."

"It happened again the next day."

"Oh." Narumi glanced over to the documents on his desk, browsing through the information about Luna. "She's twenty…_two_?" he asked, slightly puzzled. It was rarely, if not _never_, that the Academy admitted alices as students once they were past the age eighteen.

"Her alice has just been discovered a few months ago. It would seem to be one of those sorts that cannot be easily discerned, even by the wielder herself." Misaki crossed his arms over his chest, frowning at him. "You sound so clueless, Narumi. Haven't they informed you of this before?"

Narumi smiled, remembering quite clearly how he had been told of Luna Ishihara even _before_ her arrival in the Academy. That had been many months ago, and he had almost forgotten – until now. "I've forgotten about this until now, Misaki."

At this the plant manipulator almost rolled his eyes. "Tell me again why they chose to assign this to you in the first place."

Narumi only laughed. "Oh, I wonder."

۞۞۞

"What took you so long?"

The eleven-year-old Mikan Sakura grinned sheepishly at her best friend. "I, uh, ran into an accident," she said, placing her tray on the table before taking her seat.

Hotaru Imai turned back to her food, muttering _klutz _under her breath.

"I can hear you, you know," Mikan pouted, frowning at her best friend. Unsurprisingly, Hotaru just ignored her, and the brunette instead let gaze stray to the student she had bumped into just a while ago.

The young woman was seated at the far end of the lunchroom, looking deep in thought. Her long hair was swept up in a high ponytail, accentuating the chocolate-colored high school uniform she was wearing. Unlike most of the other students, she was alone in the table she occupied, although she didn't seem too concerned by this.

"Luna Ishihara," Mikan muttered, recalling what the student had introduced herself as. _I've heard of that name before, _she thought, so keenly looking at Luna that she had to blink when she noticed the other alice staring _back_. Luna was smiling as she shifted her gaze to the rest of the lunchroom, her long bangs obscuring her gray eyes from view.

"Stop smiling like an idiot."

Hotaru's sharp tone made Mikan freeze, as it did the smile that had fallen on her face. "Oh, come on, Hotaru! I was just being friendly!"

"I can see that."

The brunette huffed, finally recalling how Luna Ishihara had mixed incompatible chemicals in the lab on her first day in the Academy. The explosion had worried most of the school, although not Luna, who had claimed it to be an accident.

Of course when it happened again the next day, everyone knew it had definitely _not_ been an accident.

"I can't believe I almost believed what they were saying about her," Mikan grumbled, mostly to her ice cream. Luna had graciously replaced the dessert when they crashed into each other earlier, even when Mikan knew it was her fault entirely. "She's very different from who they say she is!"

Mikan plopped a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, only to pause when she saw their homeroom teacher from across the hall. "Narumi-sensei!"

۞۞۞

"_Welcome to Alice Academy."_

Luna Ishihara stared outside the windows, drumming her fingers on the table as the greeting from two weeks ago resounded in her thoughts. Far ahead, she could see the endless stretch that was Alice Academy, bordered on all sides by the Northern Forest.

It was at this moment that the double doors to the lunchroom burst open, making her turn to assess the setting before her. The place was in an uproar once more, crowded and loud like the day she arrived. It was exactly twelve o'clock in the afternoon; the time when it was most busy. Groups of students entered laughing amongst themselves, seeming all too glad for the respite from schoolwork.

Luna had to pause, reminding herself where she was, and who she was with. Everyone inside the room was an alice – a human being like all others, and yet with an extraordinary ability that made them so different from the rest of the world.

"And I'm one of them," she whispered, a vague feeling of amusement and cynicism washing over her. Alices were without equal – it was a fact that she knew for herself. And yet in the midst of all these alices around her, the feeling of being ordinary and unexceptional refused to leave her, reminding her that this was Alice Academy, and everyone else was an alice like herself.

She was still very young when she first heard of the school, having grown up with a friend who turned out to be an alice himself. It hadn't concerned her at all, or at least as much as it should have had. She was a non-alice, and she did not have a place in the world of alices: not then, and she had figured, not _ever_.

It was two months ago that all of this drastically changed for her. It had been during summer vacation when she found out that she, too, was an alice, and that she belonged to a special place in the world that was meant only for individuals who possessed the ability that she did.

She had been stunned – _incredulous_, even – to know that she could be an alice. She came from a family of non-alices, and when she traced her ancestry she found out that alice very rarely manifested itself in her lineage. Her discovery had left her thoughtful, contemplating the ability she had only been acquainted with, and wondered what implications this could have in her life.

Unlike her, Alice Academy had been swift in its procedures when reports of her alice reached it. The school hadn't even been deterred by the fact that she already finished college and recently took over the management of her family's business. She was an alice, before anything else, and they required that she attended the Academy to master her own ability – whether she liked it or not.

Luna took a sip of her drink, remembering how furious her relatives and the board of directors had been when she told them of her urgent departure.

"_And what, pray tell, is the reason for this sudden resolution?" one of them bravely asked, looking very furious despite the restraint in his voice. Like everyone else in the room, he didn't know of alice or Alice Academy, or that the person he was speaking to was an alice herself._

_She smiled at him, the same smug smile she had always given to practically everyone around her. She leaned back against her swivel chair – the precious little throne everyone was killing each other over. "I'm going to find myself."_

Luna smirked at the memory, remembering how she had blurted out the first thing that came to mind. _Find myself, huh? _she thought, shaking her head when she remembered how the rest of that meeting turned out. Oh, but she was sure she had made enemies of the business directors who had chosen to walk out on her at the time.

"_That's the most ridiculous thing we've ever heard!" _they had said.

She had only laughed; because of course it was ridiculous. "After all," she murmured, propping her chin up in her hand as she turned her bored gaze outside the windows, "how exactly do you find something that was never lost?"

۞۞۞

"Hello, Mikan," Narumi greeted, returning his student's enthusiastic smile. "Early lunch?"

"Our teacher didn't come to class, so we thought we'd have lunch instead," Mikan said. "Are you here for lunch, too, Narumi-sensei?"

"Ah, no. I need to speak with a student, for my special assignment. I was told she'd be here." As he spoke he raised his eyes to the rest of the room, searching for the student whose pranks had caught the fancy of the Academy.

It didn't take long before he saw the young woman he was looking for. Luna Ishihara was seated at the far end of the room, her casual manner and calm contrasting almost everything that he knew about her thus far. "There she is."

Mikan blinked, following his gaze. "Luna Ishihara…?"

Narumi nodded, keeping his violet eyes on his new student. "It seems Luna Ishihara needs my help."

۞۞۞

The voice was light, courteous, and friendly; and even without looking up Luna decided she rather liked how it sounded her name. She raised her head, her stare that had been so fixed on the wall clock now on the man who stood beside the table she occupied.

She paused, surprised to be staring up at someone who looked only a few years older than she was. He was lean, and very tall, smiling like there was nothing in the world that could upset him.

"Luna Ishihara?" he repeated. His long, golden hair fell on his shoulders, his long bangs almost obscuring his gorgeous pair of violets from view. Under his left eye was a beauty mark, accented by the sparkle of the gilt earring on his left ear.

He was a teacher, without doubt, and yet he was a perfect contradiction to his peers. _He's beautiful_, she mused, and fought the urge to shake her head at her own thoughts.

She got up to her feet, noting that she stood only a little above his shoulders; he was much taller than she was. "That would be me," she said, and felt a smile fall on her face even without her bidding.

_Oh_.

"We finally meet," he said, his smile seemingly widening by the second. "I'm Narumi-sensei, and I'll be responsible for you from today on."

She felt her smile twist into a contemptuous smirk. "I see another one has given up."

Narumi flashed a lopsided grin, making her blink. Damn, but the bastard was too beautiful for _her_ own good. "Not at all, Luna. I'm simply taking over starting today."

She furrowed her eyebrows, partly because of being called 'Luna' by this teacher she hardly even knew, and partly because what he said confused her. Did he mean that the Academy especially asked him to look after her? "Is that so," she said, unimpressed.

Without waiting for his response, she turned her attention to the student beside him. Narumi's calm and friendliness was starting to be irritating, and she did not like it when she realized how casually he had barged into her quiet afternoon. "I see you have company," she said instead, smiling at the particular brunette with him. "Mikan Sakura."

The girl flashed a small, shy smile. "Hello again, Luna. I heard Narumi-sensei was going to talk to you, so I tagged along to apologize again."

"That's all right," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "So you're a student of Narumi-sensei?"

Mikan nodded. "Uh-huh. I belong to Class B," she said, gesturing to the table where she was seated, "together with that girl there, my best friend Hotaru Imai. Narumi-sensei is our adviser."

"Indeed?" She shot a playful glance at Narumi before leaning over to Mikan, her most innocent expression on her face. "So how is Narumi-sensei as a teacher, Mikan?"

The young girl looked slightly confused by the question, but she still beamed with pride. "Narumi-sensei is the greatest!" she started. "He's nice; he's kind; and he's always there to help everyone out! He's always cheerful and smiling, and you can definitely depend on him when you need help! He's very patient with us, and I think we're so lucky to have him as our class adviser!" She nodded, as if to emphasize her words. "I don't really understand why he'll be responsible for you from today on, but I'm sure he'll do great at it!"

Narumi was quick to place a hand on Mikan's shoulder before the student could continue. "Now, now, Mikan," he shushed, looking mildly embarrassed.

Luna narrowed her eyes, inwardly scoffing at what she heard. With a slight frown she turned away, only for her gaze to fall on the wall clock above the double doors to the lunchroom.

"Oh _no_."

۞۞۞

Narumi raised his eyes to where Luna was, pausing when he saw the shadow of concern in her face. "Is something the matter?" he asked. Luna's gaze was on the clock, as if urging time to stop.

"I – I think I lost track," she muttered, sounding confused and almost panicked.

"Lost track? Of the time?" Mikan asked, glancing at the clock before fixing her puzzled eyes at Luna.

For a few moment the young woman was wordless, as if going through an internal argument with herself. It was only until that her eyes met his that she bit her lip, apparently having chosen to speak out. "I was making a countdown," she started. "It was for the explosives I set up around the lunchroom."

Narumi could have sworn he stopped breathing for a second. "Explosives?" he repeated, unsure if he heard right.

"You _what_?" Mikan exclaimed in surprise. "_Explosives_? Around the lunchroom? But that - that will destroy the whole place! All of us – " she faltered "we'll _die_! Why did you even plant explosives in the first place?"

"I – I only mean to frighten the teacher looking after me. I planned to warn everyone at least five minutes before the explosives set off, so no one would get hurt," she said. "I didn't – I didn't think I get distracted from my countdown."

"Why couldn't you have scared the teacher off another way?" Mikan demanded, her shrill voice starting to earn curious glances from around them. "Not with _explosives_! Don't you have a stopwatch or something?"

"N-No. I've pulled this off many times before – " she fidgeted at this remark, careful not to look at him " – and I've never really lost track of my countdown until now."

Narumi was quiet, his mind already racing for a solution. "Don't you have a device to keep them from setting off?" he asked, assessing the situation as he spoke. His let his eyes wander around the lunchroom, trying to find alices who could help them out. There was always the teleportation alice, or perhaps an alice of time to freeze the moment for them…?

"I had one, but I didn't bring it with me," she said. "I didn't think I'd have the need for it." She bit her lip, as though it choked her to admit her carelessness.

"How many minutes do we have left?" he continued, making a quick calculation in his mind. He needed at least five two-star teleportation alices to send everyone in the building off to a safer place –

"Three minutes, at most," Luna said. "That's not much time, but we have to get everyone out of here in those three minutes."

Narumi stared hard at her, noting the play of unreadable emotions in her eyes. Finally, he nodded , a conflicting thought suddenly striking him with such clarity that he couldn't return the faintest of smiles on her lips. "A-All right," he agreed, unable to ignore the feeling that something was amiss here. He looked over to the rest of the students inside the room, just then realizing that all their lives depended on him and his decision in the next three minutes. "Let's do it."

He turned on his heel, appraising the situation one last time. It was too late when he realized that the high school student had an entirely different idea of how to use their three remaining minutes. Before he could stop her, Luna had already helped Mikan up onto a table, the younger girl calling on everyone to listen up.

"Everyone!" Mikan shouted, and Narumi could only gape in stunned silence as she continued, everyone's surprised eyes on her and the infamous troublemaker beside her. "There are explosives all around this lunchroom, and they will go off in less than three minutes! Please get out of here – _now_!"

**…to be continued…**

* * *

Because Narumi deserves his happy ending, too. :)

**Hilaire****  
04.07.06**


	2. The Forbidden Greeting

Thanks to everyone who gave feedback. Enjoy reading. :)

* * *

**Lesson Two**

**The Forbidden Greeting**

The brunette was in panic, screaming as loud as she could to get the attention of everyone in the room. "There are explosives all around this lunchroom, and they will go off in less than three minutes! Please get out of here – _now_!"

For a few moments there was only silence, making Luna turn away with a disapproving sigh. The people here were alices, and although she had been disappointed many times before, she was still hoping they'd at least manage better than the non-alices she pulled this one on.

She leaned against a nearby wall, crossing her arms over her chest. These alices, special as they claimed themselves to be, were no better than everyone else she had previously. If anything, they were _worse_, as all they were doing was _gape _ at her and Mikan Sakura. "Did you hear what she just said?" she asked.

It was a second too late when understanding struck the gray-eyed alice, making her swear as she straightened up. The students were not running the hell off for their lives, even after what the young girl had said, and Luna could think of only one reason if this Mikan was the same nullifier alice she had heard of before: Mikan was the least plausible speaker about serious matters – like explosives and life and death situations.

_You've got to be kidding me._

"They're not listening!" Mikan shrieked, snapping Luna out of her own disbelief.

Luna felt an eyebrow twitch, cursing Mikan Sakura's obviously doubtful reputation when it came to things like this. "Tell them _I _set it up. _That_ should make them move," she said, beholding everyone's unconvinced stare as she counted in her head. Three damn minutes. She had given herself three damn minutes to pull this off, and she was screwing up instead of –

"It's all right, Mikan," Narumi interposed, making both girls stare up at him in surprise. He looked over to Luna, his tone laced with severity that contrasted his bright violet eyes. "That won't be necessary, will it, Miss Ishihara?"

Without waiting for her response, the teacher turned to the rest of the students in the room, leaving her to freeze when she heard what he told them. "Please return to your places, everyone," he said, without even a glance in her direction. "It would seem to be no more than a case of mistranslated information. I apologize for troubling you, and please enjoy the rest of your lunch period."

"But Narumi-sensei!" Mikan protested, even as Narumi faced them and fixed his gaze on the high school student. "The explosives will go off any moment now! We're running out of time; we have to hurry and take everyone outside!"

Luna raised her head, like a challenge to an unspoken war. "Well, Narumi-sensei?" she prompted, all too aware that he had completely abandoned the idea of getting everyone out of the lunchroom and away from the explosives she told him about. Damn him and that faultless calm of his; where the hell was he getting such confidence to be meeting her eyes as he was?

Narumi smiled, light with a trace of impudence; and for a moment or two Luna felt certain that she was looking at a mirror - at a reflection of mischief she had been so familiar with over the years.

"I don't buy it, Miss Luna Ishihara."

۞۞۞

It was a small smile, light and playful; a smile he'd never given anyone since he was seventeen years old. Narumi would probably regret this later, but Luna Ishihara more amused him than anything else, and he couldn't help the smile on his lips. Staring at her now, seeing the stubbornness grace her features, Narumi was almost so sure he was looking at a reflection he hadn't seen in eleven years.

Luna tilted her head, meeting his eyes squarely. "I don't think I understand, Narumi-sensei."

He put a hand inside his pocket, appearing every inch calm and collected. "You didn't really set up bombs and lose track of the countdown, did you, Miss Ishihara?" he asked, and had the satisfaction of seeing Luna's eyes narrow at this remark.

_Bingo._

"Oh?" she breathed, impressive in how she kept her sternness and composure. "That's a very interesting theory, Narumi-sensei."

"Is it?" he asked, as if to humor her, and yet the authority was unmistakable in his voice. "The lives of several hundred students are in my hands as we speak. I shouldn't like you to consider what I've presented as merely a theory." With a nod of his head, he added, "I take life very seriously."

Luna stared hard at him. "As do I, Narumi-sensei, which is why I asked you to help me get everyone out of here." Without a pause, she turned to Mikan, shoulders tensed. "Obviously I'm not about to get help from you – "

"You have to realize, Miss Ishihara, that I've heard and read a lot of things about you," he said, and he must have sounded so serious that she begrudgingly turned back to where he was, a dangerous smirk on her lips.

"I wasn't aware I was under such thorough scrutiny by the Academy," she said. "Tell me, Narumi-sensei: What have you read? Did it amuse you, if at all?"

He smiled, noting how she looked somewhat confused by his apparent amusement. "I've been thoroughly amused. If anything else, I also don't believe that anyone who has made almost a hundred teachers give up on her could be so careless to lose a countdown for explosives." He shook his head patronizingly. "You're much too crafty to mess up something as tedious as this one."

For a few moments she only looked him, a mixture of contempt and wonder in her eyes as she deliberated. "You're putting your trust on my bad reputation?"

"Whether it's good or bad really depends on who hears it," he told her with a little laugh, "but yes, I am. And on the fact that it's been almost five minutes and nothing's exploding yet; and that you're talking to me about how ridiculous my theory is when this place is supposed to have been blasted minutes ago."

Luna furrowed her eyebrows at him. "That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she said, followed by a smirk that made Narumi quite sure that he had made his impression on her. "But you're right, Narumi-sensei: I didn't really set up explosives around the lunchroom, and of course I didn't lose track of my countdown."

She glanced over to Mikan. "That would have been very foolish, wouldn't you agree, Mikan Sakura?"

The brunette gaped at them both. "_WHAT_? It was all a prank?" she demanded loudly, making a few heads turn in her direction. "You mean I went through all the trouble for a _joke_? B-But - !"

Narumi smiled at his student apologetically, all too ready to offer kind words when Luna interrupted. "Pretty much," the gray-eyed alice said flatly.

Without waiting for the little girl's response, Luna turned to stare at him, the flash of mischief distinct in her eyes. "You seem interesting, Narumi-sensei. I think I'll keep you around for a bit."

"Eh?" he muttered, not at all getting her drift.

She shrugged, grabbing his hand instead. "Mind going out for a walk with me?"

Mikan was quick to complain about this. "I don't trust you with Narumi-sensei," the girl muttered, making them both pause to look at her.

"It's unwise to trust me with anything, Mikan Sakura," Luna laughed. Without pausing to hear out his protests against walking under the afternoon sunlight, she dragged him out of the room, smiling that wicked smile whose meaning he had yet to discover.

۞۞۞

"That was rather impressive back there, Narumi-sensei," Luna said, taking her place on the bench under the cool shade of the tree. The two of them were in the garden outside the building, enjoying the gentle wind that stirred the leaves every now and then.

He only smiled, staring at the blossoming roses not far off. "I guess I'm just familiar with pranks like that one."

She raised her eyes to him, elevating an eyebrow. "How so?"

He gave an almost imperceptible smile. "I had my fair share of them when I was younger."

"Hard to imagine," she said, looking like she didn't believe him. "When I was in high school, I pulled the same prank on one of my teachers." She kicked the leaves on the ground. "My class wasn't very fond of her, so I thought I'd do everyone a favor by doing what I did."

He gave a faint smile, wondering why she was letting him in on probably one of the most intimate details of her life. "I imagine so," he said. He was interested, to say the least. Hearing from her about her mischief in high school was more interesting than reading about it. "What happened?"

"She wasn't as calm as you had been, Narumi-sensei," she said with a giggle. "At the time I already had the reputation for being a pyromaniac – which isn't true, for the record – and my teacher ran off to the nearest fire alarm." She stared at him. "Our school's sprinkler system is activated together with the firm alarm; not by increased temperature itself."

Narumi felt his smile falter just a bit. "So she set off the fire alarm _and _ the sprinkler system."

Luna nodded. "Uh-huh. It took about five minutes before everyone realized that there was no fire, and the entire building was already soaked by the time they turned the sprinklers off. They had to cancel all the classes for the rest of the day."

"You got away with it," he pointed out, at which Luna laughed.

"Of course I did." She crossed her legs, smugness written all over her features. "I had it all figured out."

"And your teacher?"

She smirked. "Unlike the students, the school administrators were furious. On that same day, several members of the board of education were visiting our school for evaluation, and although they didn't flunk us for _that_, they were far from being pleased." She learned back against her seat, her eyes still on him. "My teacher got fired first thing the next morning."

He was quiet for a while, refusing to tear his gaze away from hers. "Why are you telling me all this?" he asked, feeling suddenly uncertain of himself. He hadn't thought much of it before, but he was starting to realize that there were many significant reasons why Alice Academy was using its valuable resources to keep an eye on this particular alice.

Luna Ishihara, even without her alice, was already an individual to reckon with.

It was then that the school bell rang, prompting the student to stand up as it signaled the start of next period. "Isn't it obvious?" she said, leaning over to him so that her eyes met his; the smile on her lips twisting dangerously into a smirk. "I'm telling you because you're next, Narumi-sensei."

The next thing Narumi realized was Luna's arms around his neck, her lips claiming his own in a forbidden kiss.

**…to be continued…**

* * *

Did anyone fall for the explosives prank? ;)

**Hilaire**  
**04.30.06**


	3. Dangerous Boundaries

Thanks for reading. :)

* * *

**Lesson Three**

**Dangerous Boundaries**

All alices were cocky bastards, and Narumi was no exception to this.

Every single person in Alice Academy prided himself with the fact that he was an alice, although not everyone would admit to this. Some said it was humility, but Narumi had always seen it as no more than hypocrisy. Unlike them, he knew _and _ acknowledged the fact that he was an extraordinary individual who possessed an ability that not all of humankind had, and it was with the haughtiest smile that he flaunted what he could do with his alice.

Still, even this gift could never have prepared him for a kiss from a young woman he barely knew – and most definitely not from a _student_ whom the Academy had entrusted him to take care of.

In that moment of confusion and panic, Narumi could only freeze up, unable to blink as he felt Luna's lips brush against his. _Luna – _he protested, cursing in his mind when he became completely conscious of her warmth against his skin, this dangerous boundary she had just crossed by kissing him.

He closed his eyes, unsure what to make of the sensation he was feeling, and pulled back. He reached for Luna, intending to break the kiss, only to stop short when his grasp met space.

_What?_

He blinked, twice in succession, as if snapped out of a dream, and found himself looking at Luna Ishihara from across the Academy grounds. She was staring at him curiously, and it took a second longer before he realized how great the distance was between him and where she stood.

"Are you all right, Narumi-sensei?"

۞۞۞

Luna walked to where Narumi was, noting the bewilderment that adorned his features. He was catching his breath, his shoulders tense as his gaze met hers: It looked like the world had been pulled out from under his feet.

"You…" he murmured, hesitation making its way to his voice. It lasted only an impressive short while, however, before he gathered himself, pressing his lips into a thin line. "You used your alice on me," he said, softly but bluntly, in a tone that sounded like it was the most certain thing in the world.

She cocked her head to one side, both delighted and frustrated by his equanimity. "Did you like what you see?" she asked, neither confirming nor denying what he said.

She watched him rise from his seat and close the distance between them, effortlessly imposing and intimidating despite having no hint of anger in his features. "An interesting alice," he said, a mixture of incredulity and bewilderment in his faint smile.

She raised her head, unperturbed by their proximity, and looked up at him frankly. "A much more interesting vision."

"Creative, Miss Ishihara, and most outrageous," he relented, narrowing his eyes so that it seemed like there was warning in them. "I expected no less."

She flashed him a half-smile. "It had to be, for your sake," she said, ignoring once again her good sense that told her to just _stop_ and put an end to this silly little game they were playing. "I learned a long time ago that people only pay attention to the outrageous."

She watched him pause, a shade of intrigue in his dark smirk. "Then it would please you to know that you have my full attention now," he answered.

"You're crossing a dangerous boundary, and I want you to know what you're in for." She tiptoed, hands clasped together behind her to keep her balance, and drew her face close to his. "Do you, sensei?"

Narumi met her gaze squarely, calm and steady as he deliberated in silence. Finally, and much to her surprise, he smiled at her; a kind, sincere smile even she could not doubt. "A big responsibility called Luna Ishihara, as it would seem."

She felt a smirk fall on her face, and she turned away. "Then I'll see you around, Narumi-sensei."

۞۞۞

"Na-ru-mi," Luna read, looking over the freshly printed records of her new teacher as she stepped out into the hallway. Instead of going straight to History, the young woman had decided to take a detour to the library – something she hadn't done in the last seven days.

Even as a child, Luna had always been drawn to reading; and although almost no one believed it, she had spent enough time in libraries to know how useful they could be. For instance, a database of the Academy's teaching faculty was accessible to everyone through the library computers. She knew this from the tour around the school that they had given her on her first day, and she had used it as soon as the Academy assigned the first of its teachers to look after her.

The library records hadn't given her much, just as she had expected, but then again no information was worthless to someone who knew how to make use of it, and no prank could be rendered as perfectly as when you knew its finest points.

She hadn't found it necessary to bother with the records after being frustrated by the third teacher the Academy had sent to watch over her. They were _too _ easy, and that they called themselves an alice was an insult to both her own ability and the effort with which she dealt with them.

Luna started walking in the direction of her History class, smirking at the implication of her visit to the library after so many days. Narumi reacted most impressively to what she had thrown at him, and she had no qualms conceding to the fact that he intrigued her: temper, cunning, and perhaps even alice.

She flipped through the two-page printout in her hands, and started reading. "Human pheromone alice," she muttered, staring at the words blankly as she pondered what this must have meant. Pheromones… didn't those alter behavior and conduct? "Narumi-sensei has an alice that alters the behavior of an individual?"

She kept on reading, trying to make sense of what this ability could be. "Moderator of Somatic Type Class," she whispered, tracing the text with her fingers as thoughts raced in her head. Somatic – something physical, something about senses…

She frowned, realizing she didn't even know all the alice types there were. She had been in the Academy for more than two weeks now, but the administration had yet to make the official classification of her ability. It had been quite a disappointment; she had hoped that she would learn almost everything about her alice after only a few days in the Academy.

All she had accomplished thus far was amusing herself with designing ingenious schemes, and even this would have been boring, too, if not for the challenge of allowing for the spontaneous play of alices when she drew out her plans.

Alice Academy was an entirely different environment from what she was used to, and it gave a new meaning to the _Nothing is impossible_ cliché. Because there was literally nothing impossible inside the Academy; not with abilities like alices, and not with individuals who knew perfectly well how to maneuver their genius to their advantage – in ways that would have been considered cheating outside the school's parameters.

She had to devise new ways to cheat the cheaters, so to speak.

She shook her head, letting her gaze sweep the rest of the transcript. Most of the details in the paper were useless material, like what times Narumi was available for consultation and what times he was holding his classes. "Homeroom adviser of elementary branch Class B," she read, remembering the energetic Mikan Sakura from earlier. The girl probably belonged to that class, and quite interestingly: She seemed to worship the ground Narumi walked on.

A small text below Narumi's name caught Luna's eye, making her pause. "He's twenty-eight…?" Narumi certainty didn't look like he was six years older than she was.

_It's the smile, _she decided, allowing herself a giggle when she realized what she was thinking. She folded the paper neatly before putting it inside the pocket of her skirt, a smile falling on her face as she marched up to her class.

"You intrigue me, Narumi-sensei."

۞۞۞

Narumi was standing next to the floor-length windows beside his desk when Misaki stepped into the faculty room. "Back so soon?" the dark-haired man asked, having just arrived from his class in the elementary school building. "How did things go?"

Narumi turned away from the landscape down below, offering a smile to his best friend. "It was all right," he said noncommittally, still quite bothered by the vision of kissing his own student. He knew he shouldn't be thinking about it, but the dream had been so real and so vivid; he could even swear he still felt Luna's lips –

"Well you don't look very all right," Misaki remarked, disrupting his thoughts. The science teacher was walking over to the coffeemaker on the other side of the room as he spoke. "Something happened?"

Narumi gave a quiet laugh, inwardly thankful that it didn't sound as tired as he felt. "Well, it wasn't all right in the truest sense of the word," he admitted, staring at the coffee he held in one hand. "She greeted me by saying she planted explosives all over the lunchroom and that she lost track of her countdown."

Misaki paused, throwing him a concerned look. "It was a lie, wasn't it?"

"Uh-huh," he said, scrunching up his face at the taste of the coffee he had left to cool too long. "Judging her reputation, I don't think there would ever be a time in her lifetime that she would lose track of a countdown as important as one for explosives." He gave a quiet chuckle. "Miss Ishihara is many things, but never careless."

Misaki smirked, stirring his drink. "You got all that after just one encounter with her?"

"We did talk afterwards," he said, silently congratulating himself for not spilling his drink when he said that. "She said she wanted to take a walk, so she asked me to accompany her outside."

"And what did she tell you?"

"She told me about the teacher she got fired back in high school," he said casually, and was surprised when he heard Misaki choke on his drink. "Oh, I'm sorry, Misaki. Did that come as a surprise?"

Misaki shook his head vigorously. "N-not really," he muttered, in between his coughing fit. "I think that was included in her student profile that the Academy forwarded to our teaching faculty." He stopped. "Was she trying to discourage you from looking after her?"

Narumi smiled at the question, knowing all too well the answer to it. "No, I don't think she was," he said. "She only wanted me to know what I'm in for." And somehow he knew that Luna did, because responsibility was a big word, and he was quite certain that the young lady understood what it meant more than she let on.

By letting him know what he was in for, Luna Ishihara made him liable for taking on the responsibility that was herself – including all the mischief and mayhem that came with her. It was an unspoken challenge at its best, and he had to give her credit for its ingenuity.

"Is it just me or are you actually looking forward to this task?" Misaki asked, frowning at him.

"Oh, but I am, Misaki," he said, nodding as he took his place behind his desk. He leaned back against his swivel chair, making it turn so that he was facing the floor-length windows that showed him the beautiful blue sky. "I should tell you: Miss Ishihara reminds me of someone from a long time ago."

"And who would that be, exactly?" Misaki prompted.

Narumi smiled fondly at the memory. "Myself, many years ago."

۞۞۞

The clock tower from across the high school building told Luna that she was already half-an-hour late for History class, although it did nothing to make her walk any faster. She kept at her leisure pace, marveling at how different the hallways seemed when they were empty and soundless.

She stopped only when she reached her classroom, furrowing her eyebrows as she started to consider what day it was today. _It's Tuesday, _she thought, careful not to make any noise as she pushed open the door located at the back. She stole a look inside, frowning when she saw that the teacher was writing…

"_Equations_?" she muttered, swearing when she realized that Tuesday meant that Calculus followed lunch period. She scowled, remembering that this was the sixth time she was late for this class – the maximum number allowed to be tardy. "Unless I ditch," she said to herself.

Having made her decision, Luna started to close the door, and was just about to leave when a figure stepped up to where she was, casting a shadow over her hunched form.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a mocking, female voice asked aloud, disrupting Jinno's lecture and making the entire class turn to Luna's direction in the back of the room. The gray-eyed alice didn't need to look up to know that it was Emina Kirizawa, the class vice-president, who had shown only hostility toward her ever since they met. "Disrupting the class again, Miss Ishihara?"

"Wouldn't have had to if not for you, Miss Vice-President," she said pointedly, and would have relished Emina's indignation if she didn't feel Jinno's death glares from the other side of the room. She shook her head as she made her way to her seat, knowing all too well that Jinno would not let this one slip. Emina really should have simply kept her mouth shut and –

"Miss Ishihara."

Luna froze mid-step, turning to Jinno with a frown. Damn, but she had completely forgotten that she wasn't in her old school anymore, and teachers in Alice Academy had yet to get used to her and her insubordination. "Yes, Jinno-sensei?" she asked, walking over to her teacher when he motioned for her to step forward. She was rather fond of Calculus, and Jinno was really a good teacher –

"Late for the sixth time, Miss Ishihara," he remarked, lightning flowing like a current in the stick he held.

– and damn he could be annoying, too. "I had to speak with Narumi-sensei after lunch, is why," she told him, grimacing at the recall of her previous reasons for being late: _I got lost in the Northern Forest_, or _I woke up late. _She wasn't a fan of lying, and her reasons were true, but they sounded so ridiculous and honest that Jinno probably thought she was mocking him.

Jinno narrowed his eyes, his lightning intensifying as his temper did. "You've been causing the Academy a lot of trouble since you arrived. You pull pranks on your teachers, you come to class late, and I wouldn't have been aware I have a new student if you weren't introduced on your first day."

She smiled uncertainly. "Well – " Should she actually tell him that all her classes, including his Calculus class, bored the hell out of her? She had just finished college a few months before the school's administrators directed her transfer to Alice Academy, and she still very much remembered the things she learned in her previous school. "You see, I – "

"I will not put up with this behavior from you, Miss Ishihara," Jinno said, glowering at her.

_Uh-oh._

۞۞۞

Narumi was still engrossed in an argument with Misaki about trespassing in the greenhouse when Serina Yamada stepped into the room, a group of high school student following behind her.

"Narumi-sensei?" she called out, making him pause. "These students wish to speak to you."

He blinked in puzzlement. "Oh?" He got up from his seat and approached the group, noticing how distraught they seemed to be. "Is something the matter?"

"Good afternoon, Narumi-sensei," the imposing young man of about seventeen greeted, stepping up to him with a stern bow. Unlike most of his classmates, his face was blank, his demeanor indifferent. "I'm Yukihiko Ishigure, and I'm the president of high school Class A. It's about Luna."

"Miss Ishihara?" Narumi said, concern starting to show in his face. "What happened?"

Yukihiko nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose. "She arrived late for Calculus today, with the excuse of having spoken to you after lunchtime. This is true, yes?"

Narumi gave a nod in agreement, although something told him that Yukihiko Ishigure had already known it to be true – because Luna said it. "Uh-huh," he said. "She got late because of it?"

The young man stared up at him with quiet, dark blue eyes. "That's right. It's the sixth time she's late for Calculus class, and she's in trouble with Jinno-sensei for this." Yukihiko's lips thinned into a thin line. "Jinno-sensei is furious with Luna for answering back, and he wants to punish her with his alice. I'd like to ask you to intervene." _Since you're partly at fault, _his gaze seemed to add. "The lightning alice is hardly an alice to be taken lightly."

"I understand," Narumi said, the worry building up in his chest. The lightning alice was dangerous by itself, but strangely enough he felt more concerned about Jinno, only because he was dealing with Luna. The young lady was one to reckon with, and Narumi had trouble imagining that she and her mischief would be thwarted simply by a lightning alice.

"Let's go, then, Narumi-sensei."

۞۞۞

The seventeen-year-old Emina Kirizawa watched the crowd of students who were starting to gather outside her classroom, shaking her head in exasperation. Jinno's lightning alice had become so intense that it interrupted all other classes along the hallway, with the students worrying about their safety as well as being curious with regard to what was happening. Even the rest of Class A had chosen to step outside to avoid the wrath of their Calculus teacher –

"Will you step away from there?" she snapped, darting a glare at the brown-haired elementary student who nearly walked right into the classroom. The little girl apparently overlooked the cord they had fenced around the room to keep idiots like her from marching in, and would have proceeded inside if she hadn't been blinded by the intensity of Jinno's alice.

The little girl was blinking and moaning when she glanced up at Emina. "Are you from Class A? Is Luna inside?" she asked, worry evident in her voice.

"Emina Kirizawa, vice-president of Class A," she said curtly, wondering what business the girl could have with someone like Luna. "What the hell do you think are you doing, barging into the room like that?"

"S-Sorry," the little girl said. "I'm Mikan Sakura, and I'm sort of Luna's friend." She paused. "Is Narumi-sensei inside?"

Emina elevated an eyebrow at Mikan. "_Sort of _ friend?" she asked. "And no, Narumi-sensei isn't inside." She stared at the girl, a thought suddenly striking her. "Wait a minute; you mean Luna was actually telling the truth when she said she was late because she was talking to Narumi-sensei?"

Mikan frowned. "Uh-huh. They left after lunch, to have a little talk. Narumi-sensei told me he's the new teacher assigned to look after Luna."

"Well that's a surprise," Emina said, remembering how she had disagreed on the decision of the class to go to Narumi and help them out. _"Luna is obviously lying. Why should we bother?" _she had said, to which their class president had shaken his head.

"_Let's give her the benefit of the doubt," _ Yukihiko had said, but somehow Emina knew that their class president already had no doubts that Luna was telling the truth. How he could have so much faith and trust in their new classmate was simply beyond Emina, and although she knew she had more important things to think about than to figure that out, she still wondered about it, sometimes.

"You don't seem worried by all this at all," Mikan remarked, disrupting her musings.

"Oh, but I _am_ worried," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm the class vice-president, and I'm worried for Class A, with all these problems that our precious troublemaker is bringing upon as all."

"And Luna?" Mikan prompted.

Emina scoffed. "Luna Ishihara can go to hell."

۞۞۞

The second floor of the high school building was loud and crowded with students by the time Narumi, Misaki, and the students from Class A arrived there. "I didn't realize it was _this_ serious," Misaki said as they tried to get past the clusters of students in the hallway.

"All the more we need to hurry up," Narumi muttered, breathing a sigh of relief as they made it to a clearing outside the room. A rope had been fenced around the area, guarded by other Class A students to keep onlookers from stepping a little too close.

"Narumi-sensei!" came the shout from amidst the crowd, making him pause. It was Mikan, waving to him from beside the group of Class A students. Standing behind her were her friends Hotaru and Yuu, looking like they would rather be somewhere else than poking their noses into this business. "Come here quickly!"

He made his way to where she was, furrowing his eyebrows at the raven-haired young woman standing next to the brunette. "Isn't that - ?"

"Emina Kirizawa, our class vice-president," Yukihiko said beside him, shaking his head in warning. "Please don't let her hear that you mistook her for Luna. They don't get along so well."

"Oh," Narumi said, just as the vice-president whirled around to face them. Emina's hair was also pulled up in a high ponytail, and she was the same height as Luna; it was quite hard to tell them apart from behind.

"I cleared the area, as you instructed," the young woman of no more than seventeen said. She was clad in the brown high school uniform, her long raven hair arranged in a neat half-ponytail. Her carefully trimmed bangs fell just before her eyebrows, almost obscuring her stern, confident green eyes. Narumi thought she was pretty, and would have been prettier if not for the standoffish smirk on her lips. "Narumi-sensei?" she prompted.

Narumi nodded. "I'll step inside and – "

"Whoa, hold on a second," Misaki interrupted, staring at him in incredulity. "Don't tell me you'll step inside as you are?"

"It's just right that I do," he told his friend. "I'm in charge of Luna, and I'm taking responsibility for what has happened."

"I get that part," Misaki agreed, and gave Mikan a little push towards him. "Here, take Mikan with you."

Four pairs of incredulous eyes immediately stared up at Misaki, as if asking him what the hell he was talking about. "H-Huh? Me?" the student sputtered, shifting her gaze from one teacher to another.

"The easiest way to end all this is with Mikan's nullification alice," Misaki explicated seriously. "If we let this go on any further, I'm afraid that the magnitude of Jinno's alice will only increase, raising the danger and harm it can cause to the rest of the school once unleashed."

The brunette blinked, realizing the implication of her teacher's words. "I wouldn't want that to happen!" she exclaimed. "Let me help you, Narumi-sensei! I can do it, with my nullification alice!"

Narumi started to protest, only to be silenced by the determination and earnest in Mikan's eyes. "All right, but you have to follow exactly as I tell you to do. We have to be very careful."

"I hope you don't die, Mikan," Hotaru said from behind her best friend. The no-nonsense genius walked over to her teacher, ignoring Mikan's furious tirade against her kind words as she handed Narumi a pair of big, transparent sunglasses. "Here, sensei. Wear this so you'll be able to see despite the extreme brightness."

Narumi smiled at her gratefully. "Thank you, Hotaru." He put on the girl's invention, noting how nothing seemed to have changed, and turned to Mikan. "Ready?"

"Ready!" she exclaimed, and the two of them stepped into the room.

It wasn't long after they entered that a loud explosion erupted from inside Class A's room.

**…to be continued…**

* * *

**Hilaire****  
05.17.06**


	4. The Devil is in the Details

I don't really write action, but here's my attempt at it. I hope it's okay. :)

* * *

**Lesson Four**

**The Devil is in the Details**

"When I yell your name, that's when you nullify _all_ alices in this room," Narumi instructed. "Try to make the effect of your alice for as long as possible, to keep either of them from getting hurt. Luna's alice is not dangerous, but Jinno-sensei's lightning alice is, especially when used so carelessly." He gave Mikan's shoulders a squeeze. "Stay right here so you don't get yourself injured."

"I will, Narumi-sensei," Mikan said. "Please be careful."

Narumi stared over to the rest of the misty classroom, squinting as he tried to make out even just the form of either Luna or Jinno. This was turning out to be more difficult than he thought; Hotaru's invention was barely working against the mixture of fog and brightness inside the place.

He took tentative steps forward, attentive to the slightest movement that he could perceive where he stood. It was almost impossible to see, and he couldn't begin to fathom how exactly Jinno planned to punish Luna. Didn't the Calculus teacher realize that Luna's alice of dreams wouldn't be able to protect her from his lightning alice? And what could Luna be thinking, tackling head on a teacher who possessed one of the most threatening alices there was?

Alice of dreams… Come to think of it, why was the Academy taking too long to make an official classification of it?

Narumi shook his head, trying to keep his attention on the task at hand. He would have answers as soon as this was over. For now, he had to find Luna and Jinno, stop their alices, and talk some sense into their stubborn little heads.

It took a few more steps further into the room before he finally saw who he was looking for. Luna and Jinno were talking, as if they were completely oblivious to the commotion that they had caused the rest of the school. The lightning was flowing in the rod Jinno held, like a warning.

"I hope this teaches you to follow the rules next time, Miss Ishihara."

Jinno raised his hand, his alice wrapping the room in a blinding flash of light, and this was all Narumi needed to act. With a mixture of panic and concern for his student, he leapt for Luna, the only thought in his mind to protect her from harm.

"Mikan!"

Lightning came full blast from Jinno.

۞۞۞

"The lightning alice, Miss Ishihara," Jinno was saying. "Do you know how dangerous it is?"

Luna stared at the threatening glimmer of electricity at the end of the rod Jinno was holding, reproaching herself for her carelessness. She hated to admit it, but this had turned out worse than she could have expected _and_ wanted. How could she have known that she'd pissed off Jinno so much that he'd resort to _this_?

She had forgotten the very important fact that she was in Alice Academy – where impossible was nothing, and punishment for misconduct could mean death traps like lightning alice.

"All I know is that it's one of the most dangerous alices there is." She cocked her head to one side, keeping an appearance that was more confident than she actually felt. "You don't intend to actually strike your student with it, do you, Jinno-sensei?"

He narrowed his eyes, seemingly frustrated by this remark. "Would you like to see me try?"

She smirked, making out a flicker of hesitation in his eyes. Not that she had expected him to. "I would, but you wouldn't actually do it, would you? There are many existing rules that keep you from doing so." She gave a dry smile, as if challenging him. "Now isn't that inconvenient."

Jinno frowned. "Many existing rules also permit me to discipline disobedient students like yourself," he said, raising his stick. "Tell me: Do you have problems with rules, Miss Ishihara?"

_Bingo, _she thought, inwardly relieved by Jinno's unintentional invitation to wordplay. She needed time to think, and this was all too perfect. "Not at all. I understand very well that rules exist to keep harmony and order. I am, in fact, quite a stickler for rules myself."

Jinno scoffed at this, as if he found her statement ridiculous. "Stickler for rules, Miss Ishihara? Hardly."

She glanced behind him, distracted by the outline of a person from the direction of the door to his far right. _Narumi-sensei? _she thought, although she couldn't be too sure; she had only met her new teacher this morning. "I've lived with so many rules all my life, sensei," she said, a dark smile falling on her lips as she saw Narumi step forward from the mist that clouded the room. "I know their finer points more than you might think."

Jinno shook his head, like he was talking to a child. "I hope this teaches you to follow the rules next time, Miss Ishihara," he said, leaving her wordless when he suddenly raised his hand, his alice enveloping the room in a blinding flash of light.

_What the – _she thought, the sound of the fire alarm distracting her. It wasn't a moment later when she felt someone snatch her from where she stood. It was Narumi, keeping her in a protective embrace as he yelled the name _Mikan_ –

"Did you know, Narumi-sensei," she whispered against his ear, amidst all the chaos making out the fatal strike of the lightning towards their direction, "that the devil is in the details?" She opened her eyes to see Narumi staring at her in surprise, Jinno's lightning disappearing inches before it could strike them. It meant only one thing: Mikan's nullification alice had canceled the teacher's.

Luna narrowed her eyes at this, inwardly pleased. She held out her hand, and watched a mixture of brilliant white and blue light flash from her opened fist just before she and Narumi landed on the floor together.

It was lightning.

۞۞۞

Emina was looking at Yukihiko curiously, trying to remember if she had ever seen him looking so uneasy before. His face was still devoid of emotion, but his eyebrows were drawn down in thought, and his lips were pressed into a thin line; he was more concerned than he was sincerely willing to admit. They had been classmates ever since she entered the Academy, and she had been so used to seeing him so calm and in control that it amazed her how a certain Luna Ishihara could make him so worried.

Just what the hell was it with Luna, anyway?

It was then that a loud explosion took place, making everyone freeze where they stood. Emina turned on her heel in surprise, feeling concerned despite herself, wondering what Luna must have done this time.

Yukihiko was beside her in an instant, firing orders to the rest of Class A. With an impeccable calm, he stepped forward so that he was facing the students in the hallway. "Keep calm, everyone," he said, his voice so earnest that no one could possibly doubt him. "I'll step inside to check on Luna and Jinno-sensei myself."

He shifted his gaze to her, giving a polite nod. "I'll go inside," he said. "You don't have to worry, Emina. Misaki-sensei and myself will take care of this."

She stared up at him, biting her lip when she saw the genuine concern in his eyes. "All right," she relented, and lowered her gaze, letting him walk past her to where Luna was.

۞۞۞

Narumi was still trying to gather himself when he felt Luna stir beneath him. "Narumi-sensei," she murmured, awkwardly untangling her legs from his own. "You're heavy."

"S-Sorry," he said, pushing against the floor to get up. He winced, feeling a gush of blood from an open wound on his arm; Jinno's lightning alice had hit him before Mikan could stop it, apparently. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking over to his student with concern. Luna was still his priority, and he was just thankful that she didn't seem to be injured. He held out a hand, helping her sit up.

She nodded, plopping down on the floor carelessly. "I'm fine," she said, adjusting her uniform.

He frowned at her, taking off Hotaru's invention from his eyes. "You really shouldn't have done that," he started, making her pause to look up at him. He was still much taller than she was, even when they were sitting down. "You're trembling," he said, noting the quaver of her hands as she fiddled with the ribbon of her uniform. "Is it because you used your alice?"

She shook her head weakly. "It's not that," she said, her own confusion showing in her expression as she stared at her hands.

"I thought yours was the alice of dreams," he said, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

Luna lifted her gaze to him, a dry smile creeping over her lips. "The alice of dreams," she whispered, narrowing her eyes sleepily. "Isn't it fitting?" she said, leaning over to him for support. "I'm tired, Narumi-sensei…"

"Luna," he started, watching his student bury her face on his chest, looking exhausted and sleepy. He sighed, throwing a careful hand around her. He supposed he had to let her go this time, and keep her from everyone's questions – at least until after she had rested. "I want you to go to sleep," he said, letting his alice work its charm.

Luna glanced up at him with a half-hearted indignation. "What – ?" she muttered, trying to fend off the sudden lethargy that descended upon her. She clutched on his clothes, but her consciousness was slowly giving away, her grasp on him loosening with every second. "Don't just… suddenly… use your human pheromone alice on me…" she said.

"Just sleep, Luna," he told her once more, watching her eyes cloud with sleepiness, and pulled her against his chest so she could rest.

She snuggled close to him, accepting defeat. "So this is the human pheromone alice," she murmured, dozing off. "Narumi-sensei… why don't you… sleep, too…?"

Narumi furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head when he felt the sudden urge to close his eyes. "What…?" he muttered, trying to shake off the sleepiness he was feeling. He swore under his breath, feeling as though his alice had been used against him.

"Are you all right, Narumi-sensei?" someone called, making him pause. He turned, smiling when he saw a pale but obviously relieved Mikan staring at him. Behind her stood Misaki and Yukihiko Ishigure, both looking quite concerned.

"I'm fine," he said, shifting Luna's position in his arms. "Let's allow Luna sleep for now. She seems exhausted."

"I think we should take Luna and Jinno-sensei to the clinic," Yukihiko suggested, looking over to Luna with undisguised worry in his usually blank eyes, and it took only a moment before Narumi could figure out that Luna meant so much to the class president.

Misaki stepped forward, his expression grim with disapproval, and Narumi knew then and there that he was in trouble. "You're bleeding. We should get your wound fixed."

۞۞۞

"I don't really understand what must have happened back there," Serina said, frowning as she looked keenly at her crystal ball. "You mean to say that Miss Luna Ishihara used her alice _after _Mikan used her nullifying alice?"She glanced up, furrowing her eyebrows. "That doesn't make any sense."

It was about an hour later, just after Narumi and Misaki returned to the faculty room. The two teachers had taken Luna and Jinno to the school's clinic before leaving a brief report to the administrators about what had happened.

"Unless we consider that Mikan has yet to have a full control over her alice," Narumi said lazily, making himself comfortable on the couch. Damn, but he still felt very sleepy. "It's only been a year since she started out in Alice Academy, after all."

"Which might explain the limited span of time that she can continuously use her alice," Serina finished, nodding slightly. "I guess you're right."

"I've been wondering about that," Misaki said, pulling out his medicine box from his desk. He approached his friend, taking a seat beside him. "Mikan said she did her best to make her alice last as long as she could." He folded Narumi's sleeves until it reached the shoulders. "I can't believe you got hit, Narumi. Next time, be careful, will you? I'm not always here to treat your injuries."

Narumi grinned. "Sorry for the trouble." He stared at his wounds distractedly. "What makes you say that? I mean, that Mikan used her alice entirely…"

Misaki worked on Narumi's wounds, and without looking up, said, "We talked to Mikan, didn't we? She said she was so sure she used her alice to stop Jinno's as well as Luna's. She said she was confident of it because Noda has been teaching her to how to use her alice for a longer time." He pulled out a bottle of alcohol from his stuff. "Mikan said that even though she knew it would stop Jinno immediately, she still kept using it for another full minute, just in case Luna planned on using her alice."

Misaki shook his head, cleansing Narumi's would carefully. "I've seen Mikan use her alice to protect her friends, back when she was new to this school, and it had been most successful. I guess it's her determination to help a friend that makes it possible to wield her alice so proficiently."

The science teacher shifted his gaze from Narumi and Serina. "When she and Narumi entered the classroom today, she was so unwavering in lending a hand."

Serina frowned thoughtfully. "But the will to use our alice hardly makes up for our proficiency in using it once we're trained to do so," she said. "We can't use our alice only because we're determined to; it just doesn't work that way. We use our alice because we _can_, and we know how to."

Misaki shrugged. "Do you remember when Mikan arrived here?" he said, asking Narumi in particular.

"Uh-huh. I found her near the gates, while Natsume was trying to escape," Narumi said, nodding his head at the memory.

"You used your alice on her, didn't you?"

"I remember I did. She saw a lot of things that aren't meant for non-alices, so I told her to forget everything and just go home." He paused. "She only blinked."

"She didn't even know she had something called _alice_ during then, right?"

Narumi only nodded, wondering where Misaki's questions were heading. "Yes."

"Which means she used her alice effectively, although unconsciously," Misaki said, wrapping Narumi's arm with bandage. "Therefore we can say that it's not the lack of training that kept Mikan from using her alice today, but something else."

Narumi was silent, his mind racing to put everything together. _Something else…? _"But if we consider that Mikan _has_ been using her alice from the moment that Jinno-sensei's lightning disappeared up until the mist in the room cleared…"

"What are you suggesting, Misaki?" Serina asked, raising an eyebrow in contemplation.

"You don't mean… that the nullification alice doesn't work on Luna, do you?"

**…to be continued…**

* * *

The next chapter will further explicate Luna's alice, although I don't mind if you guess what it _really _ is. :)

**Hilaire****  
11.11.06**


	5. Ascertain the Uncertain

Let's end the speculations, because this chapter is all about the facts.

* * *

**Lesson Five**

**Ascertain the Uncertain**

"I was so sure I nullified all alices in that room," Mikan mused aloud, talking to no one in particular. The eleven-year old was quietly sitting by one of the windows in her classroom, regarding the rest of the Academy with unseeing eyes as the events of only several hours ago played in her mind. "How could Luna have used her alice?"

Yuu Tobita looked over to his classmate with concern. "Still thinking about about what happened, Mikan?" he asked, taking his place beside her.

The brunette pouted. "It's just that I was so sure I was using my alice the entire time, Yuu," she said, heaving a disappointed sigh. "Just last week Noda-sensei taught me about how I should concentrate, to make the effect of my alice last for a much longer time."

"So that's why Noda-sensei hasn't been around lately," Sumire interrupted, putting a hand around her waist as she walked up to Mikan. "If you've forgotten, I'd like to remind you that Noda-sensei has been missing since Friday, since apparently your failed attempts at nullifying his alice sent him off to who knows where."

Mikan grimaced upon remembering. "Oh. Right."

"It's a pity you messed up in both tries. Hahaha! I knew you couldn't do it!" Sumire taunted.

"Hey, that's just mean, Sumire," Mikan said, with a slight furrow of her eyebrows. "I was really sure I nullified all alices in the room. It doesn't even make sense how Luna could have used her alice _while_ I was using mine." She shook her head. "Something doesn't add up."

"Things don't add up only if we assume that you've been using your nullifying alice the entire time," Hotaru said, briefly looking up from the book she was reading. The young genius had been quiet the entire time, although it was now obvious that she had been thinking things through as much as Mikan had been. "Yours is an untrained ability, Mikan. It's inconsistent and unsteady – certainly no match for Luna's alice."

"But Hotaru!" Mikan interjected, looking quite upset by the idea.

Hotaru put her book down, staring at her best friend in the eye. "If you _did _ nullify all alices in the room, then how was Luna able to use hers on Jinno-sensei?"

۞۞۞

"That's not possible," Narumi protested, straightening up from his slouch in protest. "Mikan's nullification alice cancels _all _ alices. There are no exceptions."

For a few moments the room was silent, until Serina spoke up. "But what _is_ Miss Ishihara's alice?"

At this, Narumi froze. "Hold on a minute," he said, shifting his surprised gaze from one teacher to another. "You don't know what Luna's alice is?"

"We don't," Misaki said, turning on his heel without waiting for his best friend's response. He walked to the other side of the room, and pulled the documents from Narumi's table. "The administrators refuse to tell us what it is, even when they speak to us about Miss Ishihara." He tossed the sealed enveloped to Narumi. "Here. Check the records they gave you."

Narumi caught it adroitly, realizing that he had completely forgotten about Luna's alice - the most important reason she was accepted into the Academy to begin with. Without a word, he started sifting through the documents in his hands.

"Found anything?" Misaki prompted.

"It's not here either," Narumi said with a shake of his head. There was definitely something more to Luna's alice than what anyone of them was being told, and it was starting to bother him.

He sat unspeaking for a while, thinking things through. "Luna has been here for two weeks," he started tentatively. "Hasn't she ever told anyone about her alice?"

"Miss Ishihara hasn't exactly gotten along well with the teachers that have been assigned to her, and she very rarely uses her alice, if she even does," Serina said. "She's never spoken about it, and neither has she ever used it on any of the other teachers before yourself." A pause. "Or at least that's what we know."

"That's also one of the reasons why we can't classify her ability and put her in the class that it belongs to," Misaki added.

"And the administrators?" Narumi asked.

"They told us to leave Miss Ishihara and her alice classification to them," Serina said, an expression of confusion making its way to her face. "You don't think the administrators instructed her to not use her alice, do you?"

Both Narumi and Misaki shook their head at this. "I don't think so," Misaki said. "Miss Ishihara is hardly the sort to follow anyone's orders – and definitely not the Academy's."

Narumi could only nod his head in agreement. Misaki was right; Luna was too stubborn to obey the school administrators. Not only that, but an instruction to not use her alice hardly made sense. What could the Academy possibly gain out of keeping her alice from everyone, including the teachers they assign to her?

"I'll talk to Luna about this," he found himself saying, making Serina and Misaki pause. "I don't think trying to solve the puzzle without all the pieces is working for us," he said lightly. "I doubt it'll be easy to get answers from Luna, but she's the one who best knows her alice."

"Besides," he said, smiling faintly, "there's no harm in trying, is there?"

The look that Misaki shot him told him that there _was_, when it concerned Luna Ishihara, and Narumi felt his smile falter.

۞۞۞

_Wednesday morning._

"What time did you say you woke up again?"

Luna yawned, as if to accentuate her point. "Four o'clock this morning," she said, with a little stretch. She then leaned back against her seat, looking up at the class president casually. Their next teacher had yet to arrive, so there was plenty of time to squander. "So it was you who took me back to my room?"

Yukihiko Ishigure nodded, taking his seat beside her. "I figured you wouldn't want to wake up in the Medical Wing, so I borrowed a spare key to your room and brought you there in the evening, after they've checked up on you.

"Thanks, Yuki," she said, giving him a little smile , letting it twist into cynical smirk as a thought came to her. "So where was Narumi-sensei during all this?" she asked, careful to keep her curiosity measured. She had yet to reconcile herself with the realization that the thought of Narumi had been bothering her since she woke up – the only thing that had kept her from sleeping during first period.

Yuki pushed his glasses up his nose. "He was injured," he said.

At this she paused, unsure if she heard right. "Injured…?"

"Uh-huh. He wanted to take you to the Medical Wing himself, but Misaki-sensei forbade him to. His left arm was bleeding, so they went back to the faculty room to get his injuries fixed." Yuki lifted an eyebrow at her. "Did you do that?"

Luna was quiet, trying to remember what had happened yesterday. She recalled Narumi leaping for her, and the two of them falling down together as Jinno unleashed his alice –

"I probably did," she said, frowning with concern. He must have been in the way when _she _used her alice. "Did it look serious?"

"I can't say. I was more concerned about you, since you had fainted," he said.

"I didn't faint," she pointed out. "Narumi-sensei commanded me to sleep using his human pheromone alice," she added thoughtfully. She hadn't seen the teacher today yet, and she couldn't help but wonder if he had given up on her already. With a frown, she realized she _almost_ felt disappointed by the thought.

She quickly dismissed the idea to the back of her mind, unwilling to think about it any further.

A knock on the classroom's open door hushed the rest of Class A, making her pause. "I wish to speak with Miss Ishihara," someone said, prompting her to look up. It was Narumi, standing by the doorway, an easy smile gracing his features as his gaze captured hers. "Luna?"

"Narumi-sensei," she breathed, unable to explain the sudden delight that descended upon her, and felt a smile fall on her lips. Without hesitation, she rose from her seat and walked to where Narumi was.

She was very glad to see him.

۞۞۞

The young woman gave a little yawn as she fell into step with Narumi. "Did you sleep well, Narumi-sensei?" she asked, smiling up at him playfully as they walked down the hallway. It was barely ten o'clock in the morning, and most students were in class, leaving the corridors quite and empty.

"Not really," Narumi said, giving a faint smile in return. The conversation with Misaki and Serina had kept him awake during most of the night, and speaking to Luna did little to ease the uncertainty that he felt. If anything, it made him all the more puzzled, wondering at the mystery that was none other than her alice. "Did you?"

"You didn't?" Luna repeated, blinking up at him as if he had given her the wrong answer. "_I_ did."

"Well – " he started, only to be cut off when she saw the bandage around his arm.

"You're hurt!" she exclaimed, her pretty face taking on an expression of concern. She instinctively reached for him, looking over his injury. "This is all your fault," she scolded him lightly. "What the hell were you thinking, getting yourself injured stupidly?"

Narumi laughed quietly at her remark, amused to realize that she was blaming _him _ for getting injured. "I only wanted to make sure you don't get hurt," he said, giving her a small smile. "Don't worry; it isn't as bad as it looks."

"It's probably worse than it looks," she muttered, her eyes fixated on the big splotch of blood on the bandage.

He kept his smile as he pulled away, although it hurt to move his arm even the slightest. "It's fine. Don't trouble yourself with it."

Luna frowned, letting him go unwillingly. "What about Jinno-sensei?" she asked, just as the two of them resumed their strides.

He gave a weary sigh. "He's resting for now. Your lightning didn't really injure him, but the doctors advised him against teaching for the next few days."

She bit her lip, looking out the windows thoughtfully. "I didn't want to use my alice on him."

"Except that you _did_," he said, meeting her gaze as the smile disappeared on his lips. He knew he couldn't let something as reckless as she had done go without reproof. "You know better than that, Luna, and you should have shown more restraint."

She was quiet, and the two of them continued to walk in silence. It took a while before she spoke again. "I'm sorry," she said, lowering her gaze. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone."

Narumi paused, surprised to hear her apology. The reports he had read about her seemed to imply that she was too prideful to admit to be at fault, and yet she had apologized without a second thought, and he could tell that she was sincere about this.

He halted his tracks decisively, making her stop and look over to him. "All I'm saying is that you think about the consequences of what you do," he told her. "The gift of alice isn't meant to be used to hurt others."

She looked up at him, a look of cynicism flashing in her eyes and lingering there. "Are you giving up on me, Narumi-sensei?"

He looked intently at her, wondering at the ghost of a defeated spirit in her expression. She looked as though she had seen this many times over before –

_Like there have been so many who had given up on her._

"No," he said, surprising even himself when he realized the emotions contained in the word. "I'm not giving up on you, Luna." He smiled at her wistfully. "In fact, I'll be watching you more closely from now on, to keep something like this from happening again."

Her gray eyes widened upon his words, her amazement and surprise evident in them. She remained unmoving where she stood, wordless for a moment or two, until a small smile grace her lips. "You are definitely something, Narumi-sensei," she said, and gave a quiet laugh, her expression lighting up, as if telling him that she was onto something again. "Does that mean you'll be with me most of the time?"

He had to chuckle, despite himself. "I guess so."

"I'm glad," she said, and grinned up at him before turning away to walk ahead. "You were going to talk to me about something?"

At this his expression turned a shade more serious, and he stared into her eyes. "I want to talk to you about your alice, Luna."

۞۞۞

"What about my alice, Narumi-sensei?" Luna asked, blinking up at him innocently before letting her lips twist into a mischievous smile. "Do you wish to talk about the dream, or the lightning?"

He kept his thoughtful stare at her. "You're not telling me that you have more than one alice, do you?" he asked.

"I'm not telling you anything, Narumi-sensei," Luna said playfully. "You're going to have to figure it out yourself."

Narumi sighed, somehow knowing that this would happen. It would take a lot to make a certain Luna Ishihara to tell him about an alice that she had ingeniously kept from everyone else in the Academy for more than two weeks. "All right," he conceded. "Hints?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning on a nearby windowsill. "Let's start from the very beginning," she said. "Tell me what happened yesterday, inside our classroom."

He squared his shoulders as he started his recall. "When I leapt for you, I yelled for Mikan so she could nullify all alices in the room. Jinno-sensei's lightning was canceled, but yours wasn't." He paused. "When I asked Mikan how that could have happened, she told me it was impossible, because she had been using her nullifying ability the entire time, until the mist cleared."

He stared intently at her. "What I don't understand is how your alice could have sidestepped her ability."

"Uh-huh."

He narrowed his eyes contemplatively. "Not only that, but you were using a lightning alice – an entirely different alice from the alice of dreams that you had used on me a little earlier than the incident." He looked at her questioningly. "I'm wondering how many alices you have, and if the nullification alice even works on you."

She smiled at him. "Very observant, Narumi-sensei," she said. "Let me tell you facts."

"All right," he agreed, wondering if he even got anything right. Luna's playful expression was like a mask, and she was not giving away anything.

"One," she started, holding up her forefinger as she stared carefully at him. "Mikan _didn't_ nullify Jinno-sensei's alice."

His eyes widened, the words almost rendering breathless for a moment. "_What_?"

She seemed amused, although she proceeded without a pause. "Mikan was using her alice the entire time – or at least she _thought_ she was." She held up another finger. "The fact is that she _wasn't_, because she couldn't have: The nullification alice had been canceled _from the very beginning_."

She was holding up three fingers now, and with it more confusion. "Three," she continued, the smile on her lips more than telling him how much she relished his surprise and confusion. "The nullification alice works on me – on condition that it's used on me _before _ I use my alice."

Narumi only looked at her, unable to breathe a word. Everything that had happened was beginning to make sense to him now, although he could hardly decide whether he should be calmed or not. The sudden understanding of how Luna had deftly used her alice struck with him with such clarity that was almost scary, as if reminding him that she was Luna Ishihara; and that the only thing he was certain of was how uncertain he was of what exactly she was capable of.

"Lastly," Luna said, "I only have one alice." She cocked her head to one side, staring into his eyes evenly. "Would you care to guess what my alice is, Narumi-sensei?"

He blinked, holding her stare in a daze. "Your alice…" he started, just as the name of her alice hit him. "You have the mirror alice."

She smiled. "Bingo."

Narumi started, a torrent of questions suddenly sweeping over him. "But how – ?" he said, only to be interrupted when he and Luna heard heavy footsteps approaching them.

The two of them turned in its direction, and Narumi paused, surprised to find himself staring at three students from the High School Branch. An unsmiling young man stood apart from the two young women behind him, the intensity of his gaze instantly recognizable even from a distance. A Special Star adorned the young man's uniform, as if accentuating the effortless authority that he commanded.

"The Student Representatives," Luna said.

The trio walked up to them, led by the imposing Subaru Imai. He fixed his solemn gaze on Luna, as if she had done him a grave offense. "Miss Luna Ishihara," he greeted, his voice as cold as his expression.

"The Student Representatives would like to have a word with you."

**…to be continued…**

* * *

This was pretty fun to write, especially the twists about Luna's alice. What do you think of it? :) If you have further questions, ask them now so I can include them in the next chapter.

**Hilaire****  
12.21.06**


	6. Mirrors and Reflections

Thanks to **SnowMirage** for telling me the name of Hotaru's brother. :)

* * *

**Lesson Six**

**Mirrors and Reflections**

Subaru Imai stared at Luna carefully, a curious flicker of calculation in his eyes. "Yesterday afternoon you almost destroyed your classroom when you used your alice. If that's not bad enough, you actually used it on a teacher, and you ended up hurting him in the process."

Luna looked up at the young man. "I only used my alice because Jinno-sensei used his lightning," she said, with a slight tilt of her head. Subaru was much taller, despite being a few years younger, and he held both confidence and authority – an intimidating combination in one so young.

He adjusted his properly arranged glasses, like hearing the words she spoke frustrated him to a certain extent. "You came in late, Miss Ishihara, and reports tell us that it wasn't the first time."

She gave a slight frown, unable to argue against that. "I was only late because I was speaking with Narumi-sensei," she said, nodding in the direction of her teacher. "I was trying to explain that to Jinno-sensei, but he wouldn't listen."

Subaru only glanced at Narumi before shifting back his gaze to her again. "That doesn't justify the fact that you ended up leaving _both _ teachers injured, does it, Miss Ishihara?" he asked, surprising her when she realized that he didn't miss the inconspicuous bandage around Narumi's arm.

She parted her lips to speak, but Subaru would hear none of it. He proceeded unceremoniously, with no hesitations and no pauses. "During lunchtime yesterday you put the lunchroom in an uproar after claiming to have planted explosives all over the place," he said. "You've been causing a lot of trouble ever since you arrived, and the Student Representatives have had enough of it."

She narrowed her eyes contemplatively, only to pause when she saw Narumi walk up to the younger man. Despite his casual bearing, Narumi still stood taller than Subaru, the smile on his lips the perfect opposite of the dark-haired student's stern expression. "I apologize to interrupt, Subaru," he said lightly, "but at the moment I'm in charge of watching over Luna."

Luna raised an eyebrow at the words, unsure what the teacher was up to. _Is he going to _help _me? _ she thought, vaguely amused. Oh, but this should be very interesting.

"I'm well aware of that, Narumi-sensei," Subaru said, his expression unchanging.

"I think it's important that we consider how everything that happened yesterday wasn't entirely Luna's fault – although she _did _ play a big part in it," Narumi said. "As the teacher responsible for her, I'd like to ask you to leave this to me for the time being." He gave them a reassuring smile. "I assure you that I won't let it happen again."

Subaru stared hard at him. "You know we don't put up with students who deliberately break the rules, Narumi-sensei."

"I understand," Narumi nodded. "But I have to insist that as Luna's teacher, I think I know what can best be done under these circumstances."

_He's really helping me, _Luna thought, feeling a strange, unbidden pride for her teacher. She stared at him for a long time, almost fascinated by the conviction in his voice.

Subaru was quiet for a while, seeming to think it over. "Very well," he said, after a long, contemplative pause. "I'll settle for giving Luna a lighter punishment for now."

Luna blinked, tearing her gaze away from Narumi to look at the Student Representative. "A lighter punishment?" she repeated, feeling quite certain that she didn't like the sound of that.

"Of course," Narumi agreed, without even a glance in her direction. Luna could only gape at the two men as they continued their conversation, unmindful that she was very much standing right next to them. "Shall we agree on the terms, then?"

Subaru nodded. "Tomorrow at eight, in our office."

Upon the words, the young man turned his eyes to Luna, the cold expression on his face unwavering. "Be thankful that Narumi-sensei intervened for you," he said, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses. "Next time, even he won't be able to help you."

He gave a final nod to Luna and Narumi, and the Student Representatives sauntered off.

۞۞۞

As soon as the Student Representatives were out of sight, Luna turned to her teacher. "As much as I'm thankful that you helped me out," she started, "I'm slightly worried about the lighter punishment that you have in mind."

Narumi only looked at her intently, the smile on his face replaced by a slight frown. "I'm serious about them, Luna."

She clasped her hands together behind her, a half-smile playing on her lips. "I'm glad to know that, Narumi-sensei," she said, turning away without another word. "I get insulted when people don't take my pranks seriously."

Narumi furrowed his eyebrows at this, unsure what it could mean. Before he could work it out, however, Luna had started to walk again, and he had no choice but to put off the thought for later and follow her. "We were talking about your alice," he said instead, wondering if Luna would tell him more about her alice.

The young woman gave a shrug, looking outside through the tall windows. "The mirror alice," she said, "works almost exactly like a mirror. It enables me to imitate – to _mirror _– the alices of the people around me."

Narumi narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. "A mirror of alices…" he said, unable to keep the surprise in his voice. The idea of a mirror alice had occurred to him during his musings in the middle of the night, but this did nothing to astound him any less, now that Luna had confirmed it. It had been a long time ever since he last heard of the mirror alice in the Academy.

"Tell me, Narumi-sensei," Luna said, halting her tracks to look at him squarely. "What do you see when you look into the mirror?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "My… reflection…?"

"That's right. Your reflection looks exactly like you, doesn't it?" she said. "Like a mirror, my alice imitates the alice that I want to, and allows me to use it as I wish." A small grin fell on her lips. "Did you want to sleep yesterday afternoon, Narumi-sensei?"

He blinked, uncomprehending at first. "Sleep…?" he said, trailing off when he remembered the sudden sleepiness that had seized him immediately after commanding Luna to go to sleep. "Y-You mean…"

"I used your own alice against you," the young woman confirmed, looking very pleased with herself. "Did it work?"

Narumi felt an incredulous half-smile form his lips. "Not entirely, although I did feel tired and sleepy for the rest of the day," he admitted, unsure whether he should be upset or amused by what he found out. He chose the latter, and gave a quiet laugh as he shook his head. "I can't believe someone just used my own alice on me."

Luna smiled. "I'll do better and make sure you sleep next time, then, Narumi-sensei," she promised him.

Narumi shook his head, feeling pretty certain that Luna intended to keep that particular promise. He walked after her, thinking things through. "You said the nullification alice works on you," he said, remembering the third fact she had told him only a little while ago.

Luna nodded. "No alice can sidestep the nullification alice, and that includes my own," she said. "The mirror alice can be nullified – although it requires that this is done _before _ I use my alice." She raised her head smugly. "Otherwise, my mirror alice will simply nullify the nullifying alice."

Narumi blinked, suddenly finding himself at a loss. "_What_?"

"You only know half the things that happened yesterday afternoon, Narumi-sensei," she pointed out with a laugh. "When you leapt for me to protect me from Jinno-sensei's alice, you were yelling Mikan's name," she said. "I know about her and her nullification alice; and from there it was easy enough to figure out what you were trying to do."

She smiled. "I mirrored the nullification alice and used it against itself, so it wouldn't be able to cancel my ability. Everything was easy as soon as it was out of the way, because then I could mirror Jinno-sensei's alice."

Narumi stared at her, left practically breathless where he stood. "So it wasn't Mikan… but _you _ who nullified Jinno-sensei's alice?"

"That's right," she said. "The reason it disappeared before reaching us was because _I _ nullified it." She nodded, as if to emphasize her point. "The lightning that you saw me use is Jinno-sensei's alice, which I acquired before canceling it."

He looked at her carefully. "And you were able to do that because you already nullified the nullifying alice._"_

Luna met his gaze, her mischievous gray eyes against his violets. "That's right."

For a few moments Narumi could only stare at his student, unsure what to make of what he had just heard. He knew that Luna was good, but not _this _ good; and the fact that she had only been acquainted with her alice for a short time only served to accentuate what seemed to be her natural genius for using her alice. "To use your alice so skillfully after knowing about it for only two months – I'm very impressed, Luna," he admitted, smiling despite himself.

"I really don't think you should be saying that to me, Narumi-sensei," she giggled.

Narumi laughed. "You have a wonderful alice," he told her sincerely. "I just wish you wouldn't use it so recklessly next time."

She gave a playful shrug, reaching out for his injured arm. "I'll try," she said, holding him firmly despite his surprised protests.

"L-Luna… w-what are you doing?" he asked, his eyes widening when he realized that his injury was healing fast upon her touch. "An alice…?" he muttered, remembering that Subaru possessed the alice of healing.

"Please don't jump in front of a deadly alice for me next time, sensei," Luna told him, her gaze fixated on what she was doing. "I can very well take care of myself."

He watched her take off his bandage, letting her fingertips trail the healed, seamless skin of his arm. "You're my student," he pointed out, as if that explained everything. He looked over to his healed arm, and smiled at her. "Thank you, Luna."

She stared up at him, and smiled. "And thank you, Narumi-sensei."

۞۞۞

"We finally finished the list of what you have to do," Narumi said, settling his cup of coffee on the table as he took a seat across Luna. It was Thursday afternoon, and they were in the lunchroom, where they had agreed to meet up.

Luna flashed a small frown. "Lighter punishment. Right."

Narumi smiled. "It wouldn't have been fair to just let you get away with what you did," he told her, and pulled out a piece of folded paper from his pocket. "Here."

He let her read the list as he explained. "There are only three things you need to accomplish, plus a final penalty for what you did."

Luna looked into the list, reading them aloud. "One: For an entire week, you'll be helping in the kitchen to wash the dishes." She elevated an eyebrow. "You're kidding me. This doesn't even have anything to do with anything."

He only chuckled, having expected her to protest from the very beginning. "It actually does. You _did _cause quite a commotion with the explosives prank yesterday afternoon," he said, not oblivious to the curious glances that some of the students had been throwing in their direction. "Subaru knows you have classes, so you're only required to do that only after your lunch and dinner."

Luna shook her head as she proceeded to the next on the list. "For the rest of the semester, punctuality and attendance in all your classes will be strictly monitored." She narrowed her eyes in incredulity as she read the rest of the text. "Missing a class without a valid reason shall be met with a corresponding sanction." She raised her eyes to him. "This is ridiculous! Why should I have to repeat everything? I've just finished college!"

Hurriedly, she continued reading, oblivious to her teacher's amused expression. "Apologize – " she furrowed her eyebrows, narrowing her eyes " – to Jinno-sensei." The look on her face was one of absolute disbelief. "Narumi-sensei – do you realize what you're asking me to do?"

Narumi gave her a reassuring smile. "He's not really as bad as most students think he is," he said. "Just show him that you're sincere in your apology, and I'm sure he'll forgive you."

The young woman seemed to deliberate this. Finally, after a few moments of silence, she asked: "Who came up with these?" she asked, a mixture of irritation and frustration in her voice.

"Subaru and myself," Narumi said. Subaru had been adamant when he said that Luna would have to accomplish everything on the list, whether she liked it or not. "I insisted on the third, while he came up with the first two and the final penalty."

"Final penalty...?" she muttered, and glanced down at the paper in her hands. "Your allowance next month will be reduced to half." She blinked. "A half! But the Alice Festival would be next month!"

Narumi's smile faltered just a little. "I already told Subaru that."

Luna groaned, obviously having figured out that there was no changing the Student Representative's mind. "Can't you do something about it, Narumi-sensei?" she persisted. "This will the first Alice Festival that I will be attending, and I really want to make the most out of it."

Narumi took a sip of his coffee before answering. "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "For the meantime, you can accomplish the first two tasks, starting today. I'm giving you one week to apologize to Jinno-sensei."

Luna nodded. "I understand," she said, and folded the list before slipping it into the pocket of her skirt. "I guess I better start now." She picked up her tray of empty plates and started for the kitchen. "I'll see you later – "

"Luna?" he called out.

She stopped, and turned to look at him. "Huh?"

"No pranks."

A small grin fell on her lips. "I won't promise."

۞۞۞

Luna looked around the kitchen and sighed at the tall heaps of plates that had been carefully stacked near the sink. Takahashi, the robot in charge of the place, had given the strict instructions that she should finish everything before she could go to her class.

"That Subaru Imai," Luna muttered, pulling up her sleeves and starting on her chore. It wasn't as if she could actually do something about this, now that the Student Representatives had decided to step in. She frowned, marveling why they must have kept their silence during last couple of weeks. Subaru hardly looked like someone who had the patience to disregard all the mayhem that she had been causing.

It was about twenty minutes later when the kitchen door opened, making Luna look up from what she was doing. She paused, and cocked her head to one side. "Emina?" she muttered, surprised to find herself staring at the vice-president of high school Class A.

"So they _were _ telling the truth," Emina said, the mockery all too evident in her tone. "Enjoying everything so far, Luna?"

Luna scoffed in incredulity. "You don't have to pretend to care, Emina," she said, and reached out for the tray of empty plates that Emina was holding. "Mind handing that over? I'm nearly finished."

"I'm glad you know that I really don't," Emina laughed, making her way to Luna with her tray. She offered the serving dish to the gray-eyed alice's outstretched hands, only to let go before Luna could even touch it.

There was a loud, crashing sound of porcelain shattering into a million little pieces.

"Oops," Emina said, and smiled sweetly. "I slipped."

**…to be continued…**

* * *

Thanks to everyone for still reading despite my rare updates. I hope to post two more chapters before summer ends. :)

**Hilaire****  
04.10.07**


	7. Friendship and Enmity

Glad to know you're all on Luna's side. ;)

* * *

**Lesson Seven**

**Friendship and Enmity**

_Two weeks ago._

Emina Kirizawa was still catching her breath as she made her way into the administration building, having rushed to the place after her makeup exam in Calculus. She hadn't been feeling well since the couple of days, and although she had assured the Academy that she could go to class, they had insisted for her to have a rest. It was because of this that she missed several lectures, together with their Calculus midterms.

Earlier this morning, the faculty had informed her of the new student joining their class. As the vice-president, it was her task to welcome the new alice to school and the class. The Academy was adamant in giving the warmest reception to transfer students, and Emina understood their reasons well: The very concept of alice could be overwhelming to an individual, whether an alice or non-alice.

She glanced at her watch as she ran, realizing that she was late. The travel from the high school building to the administration building took more than she had anticipated, and she just hoped that the new alice hadn't been waiting alone for long –

Emina rounded a corner to the grand room where she had been instructed to go, only to stop when she saw the door partly open. The lights were on, too, indicating that the briefing was over. With a confused frown, the vice-president approached the door, and gave it a push.

" – it was hilarious!" the dark-haired young lady was saying, sharing an amused laugh with her companion. "It wasn't even supposed to be funny, but – " She paused, looking past the young man with her to where Emina was standing. "Oh. Someone…"

Emina blinked, just as the young man turned to her. It was Yukihiko Ishigure, the president of Class A, his uncharacteristic, cheerful laugh vanishing into a polite smile when he saw her. "Emina."

"Yukihiko…" she muttered, an uncertain smile falling on her lips as she looked at him, noting the proximity between him and the new student. "What are you doing here?"

He gave her a faint smile. "I was told you might not be able to fetch Luna from here," he said, prompting the new alice to grin, "so I volunteered to go and show her around instead." A hint of concern seemed to cloud his dark blue eyes. "Are you feeling all right now?"

"I – I am," she said, feeling like an intruder despite the fact that she'd known Yukihiko ever since they were in elementary, and Luna had just met him. Not without confusion, Emina glanced up at Luna so that her stern greens met delighted grays, and the next thing she knew was the new alice dipping in a slight bow.

"Luna Ishihara," she introduced, giving her a small smile. "I'm glad to meet you, Emina Kirizawa."

Emina stared at her with a quirk of her eyebrows, until her gaze strayed to where Yukihiko stood. The young man was quiet, the aloofness that the new alice had easily shattered slowly adorning his features again as he looked at her.

The green-eyed alice pressed her lips into a thin line, and tilted her head. "Hello, Luna," she greeted coldly. "Welcome to Class A."

۞۞۞

The greeting had been most unfriendly, and now, two weeks later, Emina didn't feel the slightest regret in establishing hostility. Something about Luna's smile had been unnerving, like there was so much more to it than one could fathom; and the spark in her eyes seemed like a mocking warning of the mischief she was capable of.

Of course, Emina couldn't deny that Luna had tried to be friendly. Her smile had been sincere, and she seemed genuinely interested to be friends. Still, that didn't chage the fact that she was a very recalcitrant student; the records that Emina had been given prior to meeting her was enough to prove this. The vice-president was a stickler for rules, and she couldn't stand how Luna could casually break and shrug them off.

The fact that new alice usually got the entire class into trouble didn't serve to help the case either. Most often than not, and always against her will, Emina found herself cleaning up after Luna's stupid stunts. There was nothing else that would delight the younger woman more than seeing her new classmate crash and burn, but she was the vice-president, and it was her _duty _to keep every student in Class A from getting a record – and that included Luna.

And yet despite all this – despite Luna's mischief – she actually ended up being friends with Yukihiko, who was probably one of the kindest, most dutiful students in Alice Academy. The direct contrast between the two was so undeniable that even Emina would not have believed it, if she didn't see their friendship blossom right before her very eyes.

It was something that Emina would never truly understand, and something that she couldn't be bothered to. She had more important things to do than marvel about the odd friendship between Yukihiko and Luna.

The gray-eyed alice blinked at the broken pieces of porcelain before raising her incredulous gaze to Emina. "Emina! You – "

She scoffed. "I'm only trying to help you, Luna," she said, just as the door to the kitchen opened behind her. Without missing a heartbeat, she gave a mocking smile to the older alice, before letting a worried gasp escape her lips.

"Oh my! Now look what you've done, Luna!"

۞۞۞

"You can start from the very beginning," Misaki told his friend. He brought the cup of tea to his lips, looking at Narumi with both curiosity and a hint of impatience.

Seated from across his best friend, Narumi smiled. He was a regular visitor of Misaki's Green House, which he usually visited for either a tea with his friend, or some whip beans he'd always been rather fond of. He knew that during breaks, Misaki spent his time with his precious plants – a fact that had always amused Narumi somehow. He was aware of Misaki's reputation among the girls, although of course the science teacher was too oblivious to notice.

"Her alice is the mirror alice," he started. He had gone back to the faculty room after talking to Luna yesterday afternoon, to officially make the classification of her alice and inform the administrators about it. Misaki had been most curious upon realizing that Narumi's injured arm had been healed, and Narumi promised to tell his friend all about the student's alice that afternoon instead.

"The mirror alice…" Misaki muttered, arching an eyebrow in thought. "It's been a long time since I've heard about it."

Narumi promptly repeated Luna's explanation of what had happened the other day, from the nullification of Mikan's nullifying alice and Jinno's lightning alice to the fact that Luna had used his alice against him, and what the Student Representatives had decided to do about all this. "As you can expect, Subaru Imai wasn't pleased."

Misaki was quiet, seemingly lost in thought. "Nullifying a nullification alice…" he said contemplatively. He raised his eyes to his friend, looking torn between being impressed and being worried. "That's… incredible. I didn't think that was even possible." He shook his head, a half-smile on his lips. "Impressive."

Narumi gave a faint smile. "She'll be joining Special Ability Class next week, as soon as Noda arrives." He furrowed his eyebrows, remembering something. "Subaru advised me not to tell her about it yet, though. He said it would only give her an excuse to skip her punishment."

"That reminds me," Misaki said. "How did she take her punishment?"

Narumi shrugged. "Surprisingly well."

Misaki stared at him almost incredulously. "_Well_?"

"Uh-huh," Narumi nodded, slightly confused. "Well."

The dark-haired teacher frowned. "Now that's interesting," he said, only then seeming to realize the puzzlement in Narumi's face. "Miss Ishihara _never _does as she's told. It's a wonder, but somehow she always finds a way to stay out of trouble."

"She _did_ complain a bit, but that was it," Narumi said, suddenly feeling unsure of himself when a thought occurred to him.

"Your alice?" Misaki prompted, as if reading his mind.

Narumi stared at his friend, and shook his head. "I'm in perfect control of it," he said. He pulled back his hair briefly, letting his friend see that he was wearing an alice inhibiter on either ear.

Misaki nodded, making no further comment. "And the Student Representatives?" he asked instead, to which Narumi elevated an eyebrow.

"What about them?"

"I just realized it's the first time that they actually made a move to, well, punish Miss Ishihara for all the mayhem that she has been causing," Misaki pointed out. "She's been here for two weeks, and – " he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully " – they've never done anything prior to this one."

"Maybe because two teachers got injured?" Narumi offered. He had read into what Luna had done in her first two weeks in the Academy, and it was certainly the first time that her prank caused an injury.

He frowned, thinking it over. Considering that Subaru Imai was Subaru Imai, it _did _ seem like something didn't quite add up. The young man was one of the most authoritative, most respected students in the Academy, and he was known for his refusal to put up with stupid antics that caused any disruption for the school. That he would tolerate Luna's pranks for two weeks certainly seemed uncharacteristic of him –

A loud _THUD!_ followed by a pained groan disrupted Narumi's train of thought, making him turn to its direction. "W-What…?" he muttered, very nearly dropping his tea when he realized what he was looking at.

Slumped on the grass, several meters away from him and Misaki, was an unconscious Noda, obviously having just arrived from one of his time travels.

"That idiot!" Misaki muttered, and the two sprang to their feet to help their friend.

۞۞۞

Standing by the doorway was Megumi Ryuunen, one of the Student Representatives. Without a word she walked over to the two girls, her eyebrows drawn down in displeasure. "What happened here?" she demanded.

"Luna dropped them," Emina said, before her classmate could even breathe a word. Oh, but this was playing out exactly as she had planned. She scoffed, trying to keep the smile from gracing her lips. As the class vice-president, she was privy to the secret that Luna was under the close watch of the Student Representatives. It would seem like the new alice had provoked Subaru Imai more than she should have. They might have overlooked her past mischief, but this time around Imai would ensure that she will make up for them. "Luna was being careless, and so she dropped them."

Contrary to what Emina expected, Luna remained silent, her features tense as she looked at the Representative. The vice-president frowned, unamused. She had expected anger, not silence.

"Miss Emina Kirizawa," Megumi called out coldly, prompting her to look up. "What the hell do you think are you doing here?"

Emina paused, unsure why the Representative sounded more irritated at her than at Luna. "I'm the vice-president of Class A. I wanted to see how Luna was doing." She looked over to Luna innocently. "I only wanted to help," she added, prompting an incredulous look from the other alice.

"You're _not _ supposed to help," Megumi snapped, sharply, making Emina turn to look at her. "And even if you were – are you sure you were trying to help?"

Emina blinked, catching the accusation in Megumi's tone. "What are you trying to say?" she muttered, narrowing her eyes. Did this Megumi Ryuunen have anything against her? They had never even spoken before, and yet this hostility –

Megumi stared hard at her. "Let's not play games, Miss Kirizawa. I saw everything from outside," she said, gesturing to the door.

The vice-president followed her gaze, freezing when she realized that a small part of the door was made of glass. From outside, anyone who was standing near enough would have easily seen what she had done. "I – I didn't! It was an accident! And besides – !" she sputtered, refusing to accept defeat. She glanced back to where Luna was standing, a curious look of concentration on her face as she stared at Megumi. "In the first place, it's Luna's punishment!"

There was a loud ringing of the school bell, and Megumi tilted her head. "That doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't be here sabotaging the kitchen, Miss Kirizawa," she said. "I don't know if there's a conflict between you and Miss Ishihara, but please resolve it between yourselves." She glanced at the mess on the floor. "I won't record this anymore, but do clean up your mess."

Emina gasped. This couldn't be happening! "No! She can't leave! This is her responsibility!"

Megumi turned to Luna, unmindful of the other girl. "Your work is done here. Get to class, Miss Ishihara."

Luna nodded, throwing a brief glance at Emina. "All right," she said, taking off her apron before following the Representative out the door. A gleam of mischief flashed in her eyes as she twirled on her heel, smiling at her classmate before exiting. "Don't be late for class, Miss Vice-President."

Emina could only gape as the door closed. "Oh I hate you, Luna!"

۞۞۞

The president of Class A was in the middle of an announcement when Luna arrived in class. She stopped by the doorway so as not to interrupt, and listened.

"Following the advice of his doctors, Jinno-sensei has decided to rest for the time being. He's feeling much better now, but he'll be taking the next several days off," Yukihiko Ishigure was saying, his voice quiet and solemn. "He says his thanks for the flowers that we sent him."

Everyone nodded in what seemed to be approval, and the young man continued. "I'll inform everyone when he'll be coming back, but for now, Calculus class is free period for Class A." There was a moment of silence, which Yukihiko quickly shattered with a quiet smile. "There's no need to pretend you're not happy about this."

Upon the words, the entire class erupted with laughter, and almost everyone started cheering. "You're free to leave the classroom, but please make sure you come back in time for next class," Yukihiko added, and made a little bow. "Thank you, everyone."

"Thank you, President!"

Luna watched as the young man took his seat at the far end of the room, followed by the other class officers for what seemed to be a short meeting. Around her, the rest of the students did the same, following him with a look of unmistakable respect.

She smiled, feeling oddly proud of him. Yukihiko Ishigure was only seventeen years old, but he was undoubtedly one of the most established names in Alice Academy. He was very intelligent, well-known for being one of the rare Top Star students of the High School Branch. His blue eyes were always earnest, even behind his glasses, and matched with his naturally messy brown hair, easily won the hearts of many.

The young man was charming, and he was liked by everyone around him. He carried himself with an inspiring mixture of confidence and authority, giving him an air of maturity that was beyond his age. He was also quiet, and serious; a no-nonsense individual who had the utmost respect for Alice Academy and its rules.

It was not surprising, therefore, when curiosities were aroused when he became a friend of Luna. The woman was quick to grow infamous for her pranks, and that Yukihiko brazenly admitted to be her friend stunned most of the school. It also raised several eyebrows, but both simply shrugged it off.

The truth, which not everybody knew, was that Luna and Yukihiko had known each other ever since they were kids. They two of them lived in the same neighborhood, and their families were established business associates.

Luna was five years older than Yukihiko, although she hadn't been able to figure this out when they first met. Even back then he had stood taller than she, and his unsmiling features always gave the impression that he was much more older than he actually was. She had disliked him immensely, unnerved by his silence every time they saw each other. It took her a while to understand that he was just naturally quiet, possessing an almost enviable composure that she thought was unusual for his age.

Unlike the other children who yelled back at her for being difficult, he had remained silent, refusing to infuriate her further. Instead he simply put up with her, and at one point did the unthinkable: He had offered to _listen _ to her.

She had been stunned, just then realizing that she had never heard such proposal from anyone before. It had been both frustrating, and endearing. Frustrating, because the last thing she had intended was to share her thoughts with someone whose perfect calm irritated her to no end; and endearing, because she realized how great it felt to finally have someone listening to her.

Yukihiko ultimately earned Luna's heart, and it didn't take long before they became the best of friends.

It was a year after they became friends that Alice Academy sent for Yukihiko. Luna had been the first to protest against it, although her twelve-year-old self hardly understood what alice meant. What she _did _ understand, however, was that the Academy was taking her best friend away from her.

She had been adamant in not yielding, but it was Yukihiko himself who persuaded her to, assuring her that everything would be all right. In the same breath, he promised that he would do his utmost to be back for her. It was the promise that she had tearfully held on to as she watched him leave, her young heart unable to doubt his words even if she tried.

Every summer break, Yukihiko consistently returned to spend time with her. He was always exhausted from the travel, but never late, just as he had promised. She had frequently worried over his health, but then he would smile at her and everything would be all right.

Yukihiko Ishigure was Luna's best friend in the world, and theirs was a friendship that transcended both distance and the existence of alice itself.

When the time came that Luna's alice was discovered, it was the young man who was one of the foremost reasons she had willingly agreed to go to Alice Academy. For his part, Yukihiko promised to help her master her alice and ensured that she would be assigned to the same class that he did.

Luna smiled fondly at the memory, and walked up to the young man as soon as he was alone. She took her seat beside him, watching him close his organizer. "Busy?" she asked.

He gave a faint smile. "Quite. The Alice Festival will be soon," he said, pushing his eyeglasses up his nose as he stared carefully at her. "I'm told you're supposed to apologize to Jinno-sensei, among other things."

She shrugged, knowing that he probably got the list from Subaru much earlier than she did. "You won't believe Narumi-sensei's imagination," she said. "An apology is the last thing I expected for him to ask from me."

Her friend elevated an eyebrow. "And you're actually going to apologize," he pointed out, looking vaguely amused. "Has something gotten into you?"

She leaned back against her seat, a small, meaningful smile crossing her face. "Don't bet on it, Yuki," she said, and gave another shrug. "Could you check our schedule for the next few days? I need to go to Central Town."

Yuki flipped through the pages of his organizer. "Let's see…" he said. "The only free time I see is Thursday next week, in the morning. We don't have our first two classes." As the president of the class, he was always informed of their schedule prior. "Would that be too late?"

She shook her head, smiling. "Thursday sounds great."

۞۞۞

"An alice of the mirrors."

Narumi nodded, pulling a twig out of Noda's hair. He and Misaki had bought their friend to the Medical Wing, where he his injuries were immediately treated. The doctors had assured them that Noda was better than he looked, and that he had only collapsed due to exhaustion from his time travel. "Miss Luna Ishihara will be joining you in Special Ability Class next week."

Noda only smiled. "I look forward to meeting her, then."

۞۞۞

Yuki was in the middle of explaining how the Alice Festival celebration would go when the door to the classroom opened, effectively interrupting him. Luna watched his smile disappear, replaced by a look of concern, and she turned to see who it was.

It was Emina, her lips pressed together in what seemed to be an attempt to control her temper. Her shoulders were tense, her fists clenched together at her sides. She wasn't disheveled, but her usually perfect ponytail seemed to be just a little out of place, her uniform just a little too wrinkled. Her hard breathing suggested that she was both furious and weary.

She was also glaring at Luna from across the room, although it did nothing to faze the alice of the mirrors. Instead, Luna smiled innocently. "Did you have a good dream?" she asked. It was obvious enough that Emina had realized that the Student Representative she had seen was only an illusion created by an alice – but only after she had cleaned up.

Emina walked up to her without comment, her green eyes seeming to soften when she looked at Yuki. "No Calculus class today?" she asked, managing a small smile.

Yuki shook his head, still looking at the young woman with concern. "Jinno-sensei won't be back until next week," he said, and offered a slight smile. "You look tired, Emina. Are you all right? I can have you excused for the rest of the day, if you'd like."

Luna watched at the play of emotions in Emina's eyes. "Just a bit," Emina admitted. "But you don't have to excuse me from class, Yukihiko. I'm going to be all right." She seemed to hesitate, before giving a polite nod. "If you'll excuse me." Without another word, she then made her way out of the classroom, her strides as dignified as always.

As soon as she was gone, Yuki turned his gaze to Luna. "You did something again," he said. It was a statement, like the most certain thing in the world.

She let a smile crawl across her lips. "I always do, Yuki."

The young man shook his head, resigned to the conflict between her and Emina. "She really hates you, doesn't she?" he asked, well aware of the animosity between the two girls. He had wanted to intervene from the very beginning, although Luna herself kept him from doing so. Instead, she promised him that she wouldn't do anything that would put her or Emina or the entire class in trouble, understanding all too well that he was the one who had the greatest responsibility for Class A and its students.

"Uh-huh," she said, with a mischievous grin. "Do you want to know why?"

Yuki paused, seeming to be at a sudden loss. "Isn't it because she doesn't want to get Class A in trouble?" he asked.

"That isn't even half of it, Yuki," she told him, giving a quiet laugh at his puzzled expression. "In time, I'll tell you."

۞۞۞

Emina tilted her head, welcoming the gentle spatter of water from the showerhead. She closed her eyes, feeling the anger build up in her chest as she remembered how Luna had made a fool out of her with that damnable alice of illusion.

_I'll make you regret ever coming to Alice Academy, Luna Ishihara._

**…to be continued…**

* * *

An idea struck me while I was writing this chapter. Something about a fan fiction whose summary would be:

_The woman narrowed her eyes and glared at Noda. "It's you! The pervert who was in my bathroom!"_

Tell me what you think and review, please! :)

**Hilaire**  
**05.10.07**


	8. Roses and Forgiveness

As promised, another update before I go back to school. :)

* * *

**Lesson Eight**

**Roses and Forgiveness**

"You're surprisingly early today."

Narumi smiled brightly at his friend. "I like to surprise you sometimes, Misaki."

Misaki snorted in disbelief, turning back to the flowers he was tending. "Hah."

With his smile still lingering on his lips, Narumi settled behind his desk, holding a cup of coffee in his hands. "Has anyone of you seen Noda-sensei lately?" he inquired, sipping his drink thoughtfully. "I haven't seen him for days."

Serina glanced up from what seemed to be her lesson plan. "I heard he's in his room, taking a rest. He got sick again after nearly freezing in the mountains, where his alice took him in his latest time travel. He got back only a couple of days ago, and has been resting ever since."

"That idiot should really take care of himself much better," Misaki muttered.

Narumi furrowed his eyebrows, feeling concerned for his friend. Noda's alice could be so unpredictable sometimes. "I hope he gets better soon. Luna will start her lessons with the Special Ability Class tomorrow."

"That reminds me," Serina said. "She hasn't apologized to Jinno-sensei yet, has she?"

"And today is supposed to be the deadline," Misaki said, looking over to Narumi curiously.

"She'll do it," Narumi assured them. "I don't know what Luna will pull off this time, but she's going to apologize to Jinno-sensei."

"You sound so sure of that," Misaki said, elevating an eyebrow at him.

Narumi chuckled. "Of course, Misaki. Why shouldn't I be?" he asked, flashing a confident smile at his friends as he leaned back against his swivel chair lazily. "Luna Ishihara told me so."

۞۞۞

"We're here," Yuki declared as he and Luna got down from the bus. It was a beautiful Thursday morning exactly one week later, the bright sunlight only making the day more perfect for strolling around.

Despite the early hour, Central Town was already busy with activities. Elaborately designed shops and stalls were everywhere, up and running to accommodate customers. Students were everywhere, most of them carrying decorative materials and embellishments. The Alice Festival was not too far off, and it was obvious that most of them were already making an early preparation for it.

Luna stared around in quiet wonder, still in awe despite herself. She had been here before, but seeing the combination of all alices play out in Central Town still hadn't ceased to amaze her. "It's incredible, Yuki," she said. "It still astounds me to believe I'm even an alice myself."

Yuki chuckled, looking vaguely amused by her remark. "It used to overwhelm me, too," he admitted. "I didn't use to believe that something like alice could exist, and that I would be one of the privileged ones to have it." He smiled. "I'm sure you'll get used to it soon enough."

She simply returned his smile in response, and the two of them proceeded further into the Town. It was only a little past eight o'clock in the morning, but they had to be back for their class at ten.

"So what did we come here for?" Yuki asked, falling into step with her.

"A cake," she said, and bit her lip to keep herself from giggling when she saw Yuki blink.

"A cake?" he said flatly, his expression suddenly torn between being stunned and confused. "But I thought you wanted to get something for Jinno-sensei – " he stopped, realization dawning on his face. "You're getting a cake for Jinno-sensei?"

"Uh-huh."

Yuki adjusted his glasses, his half-smile unsure but amused. "I don't think anyone else has ever thought that Jinno-sensei and a cake would match."

She gave a quiet laugh. "I'm hoping even Jinno-sensei wouldn't be able to turn down a cake."

Yuki elevated an eyebrow. "And suppose he does?"

Luna let a clever smile crawl across her lips, having considered the possibility before. "Well there's always the roses."

۞۞۞

The young man that greeted them was easily one of the most cheerful persons Luna had ever met.

The seventeen-year-old Kaede Sumiteru flashed them a contagious smile, welcoming them to the café excitedly. "Good morning, you guys! Welcome to Sweets!"

Luna smiled at him. "Good morning to you, too," she said, quite familiar with his energy. She had met Kaede on her first day in the Academy, while he was on his way to what he said was an assignment. Even then, the young man had been most warm and cordial, effortlessly establishing himself as a friend that Luna could depend on. Despite the fact that he belonged to a different class, he had been Yuki's friend and partner ever since the latter arrived in the Academy.

Kaede was also the president of Class B, a serious position that seemed like a big contradiction to his carefree personality. Luna had known him for only two weeks, but she quickly understood why Kaede was chosen for the position. The young man was a natural charmer, with his spirited smile and the light that his crimson eyes held even under the unruly black bangs that fell above them. He was very rarely serious, but his authority was absolute whenever he chose to be. _Sweets_, Class B's shop in Central Town, was on top of its game. The value chain was seamless, and everything seemed to flow smoothly. Even at such an early hour, more than half of the café was already occupied, and the patrons just kept pouring in.

She peered at the impressive display of delicacies in front of her. "They look scrumptious," she remarked. "Excellent craftsmanship."

"My classmates are really good at what they do," Kaede said proudly, leading her and Yuki into the kitchen. He had previously told them about the latest renovations that the shop underwent, and generously offered a tour around. "We make it a point to make sure that the ones on display give justice to the real deal."

He gestured ahead of them. "For the actual sweets, our class business manager is in charge."

Class B's business manager turned out to be a young woman about Yuki's age. From afar, Luna could see that she was wearing an apron over her brown uniform, her posture taut in concentration. She was intent on mixing something in a bowl when they came in, although she put it down as soon as she heard them. "Yuki!" she called out, her dark blue eyes seeming to light up when she saw the young man.

Luna blinked. It was unusual for anyone but his close friends to be calling Yuki _Yuki. _She threw her friend a meaningful glance, only to find that his gaze was already on the student from Class B.

"I don't see you often these days," the girl continued, her gaze only on Yuki as she approached. She stood just as tall as Luna, her curly golden hair reaching a little above her waist. Her sapphire blue eyes were sharp, the mischief in them unobscured by the thick bangs that framed her pretty face.

"I've been busy showing my friend around," Yuki replied with a polite smile.

Kaede seemed to take that as his cue, and he started with the introductions. "Reiran, meet Luna Ishihara, a student from Class A. She arrived in the Academy just three weeks ago." He shifted his gaze from his classmate to Luna. "Luna, I'd like you to meet Reiran Igarashi, the business manager of Class B. She also has the culinary alice, and she leads the team of culinary alices from our class."

Reiran turned to Luna, giving a smile that seemed oddly calculating. "Hello, Luna."

"Hello, Reiran," she said, smiling back despite her unease. Something about Reiran was almost… _cold_, and Luna wondered if it had anything to do with the girl's obvious crush on Yuki. "Sweet seems to be doing really well," she added, prompting the restless Kaede to grin.

"It's all thanks to Kaede and his efforts," Reiran said dismissively, sounding so uninterested that it hardly seemed like a compliment at all. It was only until she raised her eyes to Yuki that her smile returned. "You want anything? I can bake it for you if you'd like."

Luna looked over to Kaede with concern, cocking an eyebrow when his smile didn't even waver. His eyes remained on the golden-haired young woman, completely disregarding her remark with a grin.

Yuki shook his head. "It's actually Luna who wants one," he said, prompting Reiran's gaze to shift to Luna again.

"How lucky to have Yuki show you around," she said playfully. "He's quite the charmer in Alice Academy."

"He is!" Kaede readily agreed with a laugh. "Well, next to me, of course."

Yuki gave an awkward laugh. "Stop it, you two," he shushed, and flashed Luna an embarrassed look.

Luna watched as her friend helplessly squirmed, looking even more charming as he did. "I already know that, Yuki," she told him, before turning back to Kaede and Reiran. "I used to chase away his fan girls at home."

Reiran tilted her head in puzzlement. "At home?"

It was Yuki who answered her. "Luna is my childhood friend. We lived in the same neighborhood when we were kids, before I entered the Academy."

Reiran looked genuinely surprised, apparently having thought that Luna and Yuki were more than just friends. "_Oh_," she muttered, before once again a smile formed lips, with a hint of dark amusement. "I suppose I could bake something for you instead, then, as a welcoming gift to Alice Academy." She gave a slight nod to Luna. "What would you like to have?"

Luna stared back at the young woman, narrowing her eyes carefully. "A chocolate mousse would be lovely," she said, inwardly reminding herself to look out for Reiran. Something about the girl was oddly detached, like she didn't want to get too close, and she knew more about things than she would ever let on.

Reiran smiled. "My favorite. I think we're going to be really good friends, Luna."

۞۞۞

Serina was busily preparing for her next class when the door to the faculty room opened. She stopped, an easy smile falling on her lips when she realized that it was Jinno. The older teacher still looked a bit pale, but he seemed much better, if his characteristic frown was any indication. "Jinno-sensei," she greeted. "How are you feeling? Better already?"

Jinno gave her a grim nod. "Much better, Serina-sensei. Thank you," he said briefly. Without another word he started for his desk, only to stop halfway when he realized what was on top of it. "What are these things?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows in a mixture of confusion and annoyance. He approached his place and began transferring everything that he didn't recall to be his own to Narumi's desk, which was right next to his.

Serina flashed an uncertain smile, watching as Jinno started muttering something unintelligible about Narumi 'being such a slob'. "Those aren't Narumi-sensei's, Jinno-sensei," she interrupted, making the other teacher pause to look up at her. "They're for you. Miss Ishihara stopped by a while ago to give them to you. She asked if she could leave them there when I told her you haven't arrived yet, and I allowed her to. I hope you don't mind."

If Jinno was surprised by this, he hid it well. There was no notable change in his irritated expression. "That prankster," he muttered. "What's she up to this time?"

Serina smiled. "I doubt it's a prank, Jinno-sensei. Miss Ishihara seemed pretty keen on apologizing to you."

Jinno only seemed more unconvinced. "Huh." He picked up the big bouquet of white roses and red carnations. "Surely this must be Narumi-sensei's," he said, looking at the flowers with a sneer.

Serina felt her smile widen, tempted to chuckle at Jinno's unrelenting conviction that everything that Luna gave him was Narumi's. "No, that's yours, too," she said. "Those flowers and the box of cake are yours."

Upon hearing this, Jinno's veneer finally cracked. He looked stunned, his eyes widening ever so slightly in surprise. He reached for the card attached to the box of cake and for the other one attached to the bouquet. The two said the same thing:

_I'm sorry about what happened, Jinno-sensei. I promise to come to your class on time from now on. _

_Luna Ishihara_

Silence.

From where she sat, Serina shook her head at the other teacher's reaction. She would bet her crystal ball that Jinno had never received a bouquet of flowers from a girl before.

۞۞۞

"What's taking Jinno-sensei so long?" Luna muttered as she fidgeted in her place. Beside her, Yuki was diligently writing in his organizer, although he looked up when he heard her.

It was still a few minutes before lunchtime was over, and the two of them decided to stay in the classroom to wait for Jinno. Almost everyone else was already in the room as well, knowing that today was when their Calculus teacher would be back from his rest.

Yuki shook his head in amusement. "It's still early, Luna," he pointed out lightly.

"He's usually here earlier than you," she told him, wondering if somehow they got the wrong information and Jinno was actually coming back _tomorrow_.

As if hearing her thoughts, it was then that Jinno stepped inside the classroom, his arrival so sudden that it rendered the entire class silent. He looked even more unapproachable and intimidating than before. He was still a bit pale, but he seemed much better after getting a rest.

The class stood up and greeted him good afternoon, to which his only response was a curt nod. "Sit down," he said, after which he darted a sharp glance in her direction. "Miss Ishihara."

Luna stood up promptly. "I'm glad to see you're doing much better now, Jinno-sensei," she said, with a polite nod. "I truly apologize for what happened last week."

The Calculus teacher seemed unimpressed, and he raised an eyebrow at the earnestness in her voice. Luna inwardly flinched, unsure if she was doing it right. It had been Narumi himself who told her how important her apology to Jinno would be.

"_Admitting our mistake is one of the most difficult things in the world," Narumi said, "but it shouldn't keep us from doing so anyway." He paused._ _"I hope you don't consider apologizing to Jinno-sensei as a punishment. I only think it's important for you to realize your faults in what happened."_

_He smiled wistfully. "Apologize to Jinno-sensei once you can sincerely admit that you owe him one," he added. "Otherwise, you may choose not to do it at all."_

The conversation had been short, but insightful. Luna knew that somehow, she owed Narumi for reminding her of something she had almost forgotten:

"_The only apologies that should be spoken are the ones that a person means with all her heart."_

Of course, that didn't make it any easier to apologize to Jinno. Luna had considered Narumi's words and willingly made the decision to give an apology, but it didn't mean that she even knew how to express herself. She was much better at drawing out elaborate schemes than apologizing for what she'd done.

_What will I do if he doesn't forgive me? _she thought desperately, only to be interrupted when Jinno finally spoke.

"The roses were lovely, Miss Ishihara," he deadpanned, picking up a piece of chalk as he did.

For a few seconds, the young woman stood frozen in her place, agape at her teacher as he started to write equations on the board. "W-What…?" she whispered mostly to herself, unsure if she heard right. Did Jinno really say… _lovely_?

"I think you heard him right, Luna," Yuki murmured, prompting the older alice to blink.

"I take it that you're going to keep your promise to come to class on time," Jinno continued. He narrowed his eyes, as if to weigh the truth of the promise in the note that she left him.

Without her bidding, a smile that was both amused and delighted soon fell on Luna's lips. "Of course, Jinno-sensei," she assured him. One of the most important things that Yuki had taught her was to never break a promise. "Thank you."

She took her seat as soon as Jinno gestured for her to, biting her lip to keep herself from giggling in glee. It was almost strange, but what she had done left her feeling accomplished and proud of herself – something like the thrill she got when she executed a prank perfectly, only much better.

_Thank you, Narumi-sensei._

۞۞۞

Luna found Narumi waiting outside her classroom after her last subject for the day. He was leaning against a nearby windowsill, smiling as soon as he caught her eyes.

She walked up to him with a smile. "I haven't seen you in a while, Narumi-sensei," she greeted. The last time they saw each other was a week ago, when they spoke about the things she needed to do, and her apology to Jinno.

"I've been busy," he said. "No pranks this week, I heard?" he asked, his smile seeming to widen.

She gave a casual shrug, completely aware of how uneventful the week had been for a mischief-maker like herself. Strangely enough, it didn't even bother her as much as she thought it would. It actually felt great just being a student, without the constant need to think and scheme and ensure that she wouldn't be caught. "I've been busy myself."

"I'm glad you apologized to Jinno-sensei," Narumi said. "He keeps the flowers in a vase on his desk now."

She giggled at this. "You might not believe it, but it felt great to apologize to him," she said. "Thank you," she added, "for asking me to do that. I've nearly forgotten how to ask for forgiveness."

Narumi smiled. "You're welcome, Luna." Without a pause, he handed her a folded piece of paper. "Your reward."

She furrowed her eyebrows, curiously unfolding the paper. "Reward?"

Narumi nodded. "I came here to tell you that you'll be starting your lessons with Noda-sensei tomorrow morning. He's the moderator of the Special Ability Class, the one which you'll be joining. Your classroom is located outside the main grounds, and that's the map to guide you for tomorrow."

Luna studied the map in her hands. "Special Ability Class," she muttered, a sudden wave of excitement sweeping over her. "I'm finally going to start my lessons with them."

"That's right," Narumi said. "Noda-sensei will teach you how you can master your alice. Mikan said she'll come and fetch you tomorrow morning, to make sure you don't get lost on the way there."

Luna was still smiling as she folded the small map and put it inside the pocket of her skirt. She had been waiting for this ever since she discovered her alice, and that it would soon happen could only leave her breathless and excited. "I can't wait to begin, Narumi-sensei."

۞۞۞

_Friday morning._

Emina Kirizawa nodded thoughtfully, feeling satisfied as she looked at herself through the floor-length mirror beside her bed. Her now gray eyes seemed to sparkle with mischief, her lips curling up in a cunning smirk that was remarkably someone else's. She ran a hand over her hair for the carefully messy look, making sure that the loose bangs framed her face perfectly. With a few more adjustments, she decided that she got everything just right, and she smiled.

In the mirror, smiling back at Emina, was the perfect reflection of Luna Ishihara herself.

**…to be continued…**

* * *

In his book _Travels_, my favorite author, Michael Crichton, said that it would be awesome to receive flowers from his girlfriend. :)

**Hilaire  
05.31.07**


	9. These Wicked Deceptions

Eventful chapter ahead. :)

* * *

**Lesson Nine**

**These Wicked Deceptions**

_Friday morning._

The seventeen-year-old Reiran tugged on the sleeves of Kaede's uniform, licking a cone of ice cream in her free hand. "Will you still take long?" she asked him.

It was about ten o'clock in the morning of Friday, and the two students were in the dining hall to pick up late breakfast for themselves and the rest of Class B. Most of the morning had been spent on drawing out the plans for the Alice Festival preparation, and Kaede had graciously offered to pick up their food while the others wrapped things up.

Kaede looked up from the selection of food in front of him, frowning when he noticed that she was already eating dessert. "Ice cream in the morning?"

She shrugged, having only accompanied him because the meeting bored her. "You're taking so long, and I'm already hungry." She looked over to the entrance to the lunchroom, frowning when a familiar figure caught her eye.

Kaede sheepishly scratched his head as he gathered the packed meals, stopping when he realized that his companion's attention was fixed on something at the far end of the lunchroom. He tried to follow her gaze, but she had already turned back to him with a frown. "Is there a problem?" he asked, his features taking on a look of confusion.

"Go ahead, Kaede," Reiran simply said. "I'm staying."

Kaede stared at her bored expression, unsure what was happening. "Huh?"

Reiran glanced outside through windows nearby, unspeaking. Far ahead, the mysterious Northern Forest stood proud and grand and imposing. "Something tells me it's going to be pretty interesting here soon enough."

۞۞۞

Yuki was walking down the hallway in a hurry, his eyebrows drawn down in concentration as he tried to adjust his uniform. He pressed a hand against his earpiece, trying to memorize everything that the person on the other line was telling him.

"Yes, I understand," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose as he did. He had woken up to the call of the Dangerous Ability moderator this morning and was told that there was an urgent assignment where he was needed. He had taken a quick shower and changed into his uniform in no time, and rushed to complete his duties to Class A. He wasn't sure when he would be back, and he wanted everything to be perfect for his classmates in case would be gone for a while.

"Is Kaede going?" he asked, just as he rounded a corner. He glanced to his left and stared outside the tall windows, looking over to the clock tower to check the time –

"No," he barely heard Persona say on the other line. "Just you and the Black Cat will do."

Yuki blinked, distracted by a glimpse of someone in the opposite building. Ignoring the good sense that told him he was going to be late for the mission, he walked up to the tall windows, squinting his eyes against the bright morning sunlight to have a look.

The young man adjusted his glasses, unable to keep the confusion that crossed his face. In the building directly opposite where he was standing was the lunchroom, already crowded with students having their breakfast. Seated on one of the tables next to the tall windows was Luna Ishihara herself, idly sipping her drink as she beheld the Northern Forest.

"Luna…?" he murmured, wondering if there must be some mistake. The young woman had spent most of last night's dinner by excitedly telling him about how she was beginning her lessons with the Special Ability class today.

Yuki glanced back at the clock tower. It was already a little past ten o'clock in the morning, and classes were supposed to start at exactly ten. He was quite certain that his friend should be out with the Special Ability by this time, or at least on her way to their classroom.

He frowned, shifting his gaze back to Luna. Somehow, he couldn't believe that she would ditch her first day with her new class. There was no way she would miss it for the world – not when she had been looking forward to it ever since the two of them discovered her alice.

" – Yuki?"

He stopped, Persona's voice startling him out of his musings. "Yes, I'm still here," he said, adjusting his earpiece as he turned away from the windows.

"We're leaving in ten minutes," Persona said.

"I'll be there in three," he answered, absentmindedly nodding his head. He gave one last glance at young lady in the other building, a thoughtful frown tugging on his lips, before finally he started for the Dangerous Ability briefing room once more.

There was simply no way that girl could be Luna.

۞۞۞

Narumi was on his way to pick up a can of cold coffee when he saw Luna. The young woman was seated at the far end of the lunchroom, just as she had when they first met. She was staring out the windows next to her table, her chin propped up in one hand as she sipped her drink in a bored fashion.

"Luna?"

The student blinked, seemingly startled to be interrupted, and raised her gaze to him. "Narumi-sensei," she greeted, her voice having an odd hint of hesitation to it. She smiled up at him, her gray eyes meeting his violets. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to grab some cold coffee, and I saw you," he said, his eyebrows dipping in query. "I thought you were going to join the Special Ability today," he pointed out, remembering how excited she had been last night, when he finally informed her about her class with Noda and Mikan. The clock tower from across the building said it was already past ten o'clock – the time when Special Ability class was supposed to start. By this time, Luna should be already on her way to the classroom in the building to the furthest left of the main, so she wouldn't be late.

She seemed to pause, taking on a fleeting expression of confusion. It lasted only a heartbeat, however, until her smile returned. "Mikan said she forgot something in her room, so I thought I'd have a drink first, while waiting for her," she said, giving a casual shrug.

Narumi stared at her curiously, feeling strangely awkward. The words seemed stuck in his throat, making it almost appear as if he was seated opposite a stranger instead of a familiar troublemaker who possessed ingenuity beyond her age. "I see," he mumbled, to which Luna smiled.

"You're awfully quiet today, Narumi-sensei," she remarked. She turned her head to the left, staring outside through the tall springline windows next to them. "Perhaps I can amuse you with a little magic?"

Narumi stopped, a sudden, almost irrational worry tugging at his chest. "Magic?" he cautiously asked. He couldn't explain it even to himself, but something felt terribly off; like Luna's smile was a little too innocent, a little too sweet for comfort.

She gestured outside. "Tell me what you see."

He glanced outside, furrowing his eyebrows at the sight of the Northern Forest. From where they were, he could see the very heart of the mysterious woodland that surrounded the entirety of Alice Academy, seeming to stretch endlessly. He turned back to his student. "The Northern Forest?" he asked.

She smiled, looking very pleased. "What if I told you I can make the Northern Forest disappear?"

Narumi was silent, watching her eyes light up in delight, as if inwardly laughing at an amusing truth that was known only to her. "And how will you do that, exactly?" he asked, anxiety building up in his chest underneath his practiced smile.

She leaned back against her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, a smug smirk on her lips. "Burn it to the ground, of course."

۞۞۞

The eleven-year-old Natsume Hyuuga was staring outside through the window when he decided to shatter the silence in the limousine. "Persona said five days," he murmured, with a touch of disdain. "Let's finish it in three."

Yuki didn't even lift his gaze from the changing view outside the car. Instead he propped up his chin on his knuckles, his expression remaining just as bored as Natsume's. "Three days."

Inwardly, underneath his perfect appearance of calm, Yuki was too busy worrying over a certain Luna Ishihara to think about anything else.

۞۞۞

Narumi swallowed, feeling as though Luna's words had momentarily stolen his ability to breathe. He stared at her in incredulity, his smile disappearing into a worried frown, until finally he found his voice. "Stop joking around, Luna," he told her darkly, to which she laughed.

"Oh, but this is not a joke, Narumi-sensei," she told him, seeming to enjoy the concern that was slowly gracing his features. "I set up explosives at the very heart of the Northern Forest this morning, and the first one will go off in – " she stared up at the wall clock " – sixteen seconds."

Narumi clenched his jaw, refusing to believe what she was doing. The Luna Ishihara that had come to intrigue him with her elaborate schemes would not do something so drastic like this – at least not at a time when Noda and the Special Ability Class were waiting for her with the first lesson about her own alice. "Luna – " he started, only to be interrupted when she started her countdown.

"Nine…" she murmured, her voice sure and steady, "eight… watch carefully, Narumi-sensei. One day you can say you witnessed the destruction of Northern Forest itself… three… two…"

"Luna!"

"…one…" She looked up at him, and as she paused for the final number to complete her countdown, a small, mischievous smile crept over her lips.

"Zero."

It was then that a loud explosion took place, shattering the uproar inside the lunchroom. Silence ruled over them in the next stunned seconds, until finally the students erupted with cries of fear and alarm. It took another moment before everyone realized that the explosion had come from the direction of the Northern Forest, and the students rushed to the windows to take a look.

Amidst all this, Luna sat unmoved, her eyes reflecting the dancing flames of the burning forest. She was silent for a while, looking almost surprised by the explosion she had created herself. After a while she gave a soft laugh, sounding both smug and pleased with what she had done. "This is more exciting than I could have imagined it would be."

Narumi gaped at the dark smoke that was beginning to wrap the forest, only vaguely aware of the tumult that was overtaking the lunchroom itself. "Why are you doing this?" he said, his voice coming out in a hoarse whisper.

Luna scoffed at the question, as if the answer was painfully obvious. "You didn't really think I'd willingly endure one week worth of punishment, did you, Narumi-sensei?" she asked, the faintest of surprises cross her eyes when she saw his expression harden upon her words.

Luna rose from her seat, looking back to the burning forest far away. "The next and last explosive will go off exactly seven minutes from now," she told him. "I advise you against trying to stop it, Narumi-sensei, as that will only make things worse."

Narumi could only blink as the student tiptoed to him so that they were holding each other's gazes, and once more he felt like he was looking into the eyes of a stranger instead of the young woman he'd already grown accustomed to. "Say hi to Subaru Imai for me."

Without another word, Luna pulled away, giving him one last insolent smirk before sauntering off.

۞۞۞

A young woman with the bluest pair of eyes emerged from behind a wall as soon as Luna walked past her to leave the lunchroom. She let her gaze follow the girl who then rounded a corner, her steps confident and without worry.

Reiran smiled quietly to herself, amidst the clamoring of everyone else. "Interesting."

۞۞۞

Narumi stared over to the students before him, giving them a reassuring nod. "This is the best time to make use of your alices. We only have five minutes left, and it's important that we finish this before it causes further trouble than it already has." He watched as everyone nodded their agreement, and he felt himself calm down even just a little.

"Is Luna Ishihara behind this? I can't believe she went this far," one of the students complained, making Narumi pause.

He looked up to see a group of seniors shaking their heads as they left to do as he'd bidden them to, and he clenched his jaw. _That girl_, he thought, his heart still pounding in his chest as he started for the faculty room, remembering the young lady that had started all of this.

_She's _not_ Luna._

۞۞۞

Emina threw herself onto the bed, landing on her stomach in a heap. "I'm exhausted," she groaned, burying her face in the soft pillows. For a few moments she only lay there, catching her breath, marveling at the excited thudding of her heart. "So this is what Luna must feel like, when she makes a fool out of everyone else."

The young woman got up from the bed, and walked over to her floor-length mirror. She stared into it silently – at the perfect reflection of Luna Ishihara herself. Emina smirked, remembering how stunned Narumi had been when she answered with her reason for doing what she had done. The teacher had truly looked like he believed that Luna would willingly go through the punishment, without getting even.

_What a fool, _Emina thought, watching as her alice worked it magic, and in no time at all she was looking at her own reflection. _ Luna would have. She always does. _Luna accomplishing her punishments was completely unheard of, and Emina was more than certain that the gray-eyed alice would have done something like this, too, at a time that no one would expect it.

There was no way Luna actually liked Narumi enough to follow as he told her to.

She sat back on her bed, marveling at the thought. "Come to think of it," she whispered, recalling how delighted Luna had seemed to be, when she saw Narumi after class yesterday. Emina hadn't intended to look, but Luna's attitude toward her new teacher was so oddly different from how it had been to the other teachers that it was simply too difficult not to notice.

Emina smirked at the odds that the troublemaker _did_ like Narumi enough to trust him and follow as he instructed. "Even better, then," she scoffed, letting herself collapse onto the bed once more.

"I can't wait to see how betrayed Luna will be once Narumi-sensei accuses her of something she didn't do."

**...to be continued…**

* * *

How cool is the date today? :D

**Hilaire****  
07.07.07**


	10. The Alice of Many Faces

A long time ago, I promised myself I'd finish this story. :)

* * *

**Lesson Ten**

**The Alice of Many Faces**

_Friday, lunchtime._

Luna could feel Mikan's eyes on her as she stared up at the banner that greeted her from the door. It was fastened by an almost invisible rope, the words _Welcome to Special Ability Class!_ imprinted on it in big, dark font. She stood frozen where she was, trying to take it all in, barely hearing the girl's voice amidst the loud hooting of her new classmates.

"We always do this when there's a new student joining our class," Mikan said. Luna turned to her and saw the brunette giggling softly at what must have been an astounded expression on her face.

"This is _amazing_," Luna managed to breathe, muttering a silent '_thank you' _ when one of her new classmates handed her a party hat and a glass of soft drink. "You really go through all this trouble for a new student?"

Mikan smiled. "It's no trouble at all, really! We're a big family here in Special Ability, and we treat every member of the class very important to us." She gestured to the banner once more. "Welcome to Special Ability, Luna! I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun in this class!"

"Oh, she will. We'll make sure of that," a pink-haired girl of no more than fifteen said, approaching them with a dark-haired young man. She smiled at Luna as she introduced herself. "Welcome to Special Ability. I'm Misaki Harada."

The young man grinned. "Tsubasa Andou. Welcome to the class."

Luna smiled back, encouraged by their friendliness. "Luna Ishihara, troublemaker," she said, starting to feel more at ease.

"I've heard of that," Tsubasa said with a laugh. "I think we'll get along _really _ well." That earned him a nudge from Misaki. "Aw, Misaki. You'll destroy my ribcage by the end of the day," he complained good-naturedly.

"Shut up, Tsubasa."

"You make a good pair," she teased lightly, and continued before any of them could protest. "So where's Noda-sensei?" she asked, very curious of the teacher who seemed to be adored by the whole class. She had asked Yuki and Kaede about Noda, and both could say only the best things about the Special Ability moderator.

"He said he'd be late, but he'll be here soon." Misaki chuckled. "He nearly froze to death in the mountains."

She raised an eyebrow, unsure if she heard right. "Mountains?"

"He has the alice of time traveling, and he usually ends up in the weirdest places," Tsubasa said. "He ended up in the mountains this time, so when he came back a few days ago he had a bad cold and a high fever."

She grimaced, imagining what Noda must have been through. "Is he all right now?" she asked.

"Don't worry; he is. He doesn't look it, but he's pretty tough," Misaki assured her.

"That's a relief," she said, suddenly amused when she realized that she _did _ feel relieved to know that her teacher was all right. "I've been looking forward to meeting him so I can ask him more about my alice."

"Oh, you'll meet him later," Tsubasa said, giving her a push towards the heart of the celebration. "For now, let's just enjoy this little celebration we prepared for you, shall we?"

"Let the party begin!" Mikan and Misaki chorused.

۞۞۞

Narumi narrowed his eyes at the smoke that enveloped most of the Northern Forest. It had been more than five minutes since the second explosives went off, but the smoke still obscured parts of the forest from view.

Beside him, Subaru Imai was quiet. He had commanded the use of water alices earlier, but Narumi only disagreed with this. _"There's something amiss here," he said._

"_I can see that, Narumi-sensei. The Northern Forest is burning when it shouldn't," Subaru said, having a certain edge to his voice. He glanced over to the flames at the center of the woodland, his eyes unreadable. He and the rest of the teachers were in a safe distance, protected by a barrier alice._

_Narumi took a deep breath. "Those aren't real flames."_

_Subaru stared hard at him, unable to hide his incredulity. "_What_?"_

"_Leaves burn fast," Narumi explained, "especially dried leaves. Northern Forest wouldn't have lasted this long if that's a real fire." He paused, almost hesitant to tell them his theory. It made sense, all things considered, but it was equally preposterous at the same time. "Setting the forest on fire is not the prank. I suspect it's merely a distraction."_

"_That's one hell of a distraction," one of the Student Representatives shot back, apparently irritated by Narumi's calm._

"_What do you suggest, Narumi-sensei?" Subaru asked, narrowing his eyes at him._

"_We wait," he said simply._

"Narumi-sensei," Subaru called out, distracting Narumi's musings. "Time's up." The teacher had asked the young man to make a seven-minute countdown from the moment the second set of explosives went off.

"Thanks." Narumi nodded at the other Student Representative, signaling for her to use her wind alice. She scoffed at him, but summoned the winds regardless, dispelling the smoke and clearing most of the area for them.

Narumi narrowed his eyes, gave another nod, and the student created another strong breeze, this time letting it blow for a longer time.

In a few seconds the wind dispelled even the fire, slowly but without doubt.

Narumi could hear the gasps from the Representatives as they watched the flames _fade _ easily. The trees and bushes that had seemed to be burning just a while ago remained in their places, untouched instead of being reduced to ashes; not even looking singed at the slightest.

He turned to Subaru, giving a small nod.

The student hadn't lost his composure, but he looked furious. "Is Luna Ishihara making a fool of us?" he muttered, his voice pitched low.

Narumi only managed a weak smile before walking ahead towards the heart of the forest.

۞۞۞

The man in front of Luna hardly looked like he had just recuperated from sickness. With his easy manner and a smile that never seemed to leave his lips, Noda was very easy to like. He blended in well with his students, and it was almost unbelievable that he was a teacher instead of a student like themselves. "Hello, Luna. I'm Noda-sensei, and I'm in charge of Special Ability Class. I'm so glad you've finally joined us."

Luna smiled, easily won over by his effortless charm. "I am, too, Noda-sensei," she told him sincerely.

"I'm sorry I couldn't join your party," he continued, scratching his head sheepishly. "I got really sick."

"That's all right," she said. "I understand that you were taking a rest."

"Don't worry, Noda-sensei! We saved you some cake!" Mikan added helpfully, occupying the desk just opposite Luna. Behind her were Misaki and Tsubasa, looking vaguely amused. The three had graciously offered to come with Luna to her special training, curious to hear what their teacher had to say about her alice.

"Thank you, Mikan," Noda said, before turning back to her. "I'm sure you look forward to learning more about your alice, Luna."

"I am," she said, giving a nod. "The mirror alice."

"Let's begin, then." Noda picked up a piece of chalk and drew a mirror on the blackboard. "The mirror alice got its name from the fact that it works just like a mirror: It copies the exact ability of another alice within its bounds." He paused as if to emphasize his words. "It has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, like all other alices."

He held up a forefinger. "One of its greatest disadvantages is that the mirror alice can _never _ work without other alices around it." He nodded to her. "Tell me, Luna: How did you find out about your alice?"

She straightened up. "My best friend is an alice, and I accidentally used his own alice while he was with me."

"Is your best friend still in the Academy?" Misaki asked from the back of the room.

Luna turned to the younger girl, smiling. "My best friend is Yukihiko Ishigure."

Mikan blinked, obviously knowing the young man. "Him? But everyone says you're going out…"

She gave a quiet laugh at this. "We've been friends since he was five," she said. "We don't really tell anyone about it; it keeps his fan girls away most times." With a dismissive shrug, she turned back to her teacher. "I was thinking Yuki's alice must have triggered my own."

"That's a possibility, considering how strong his alice has become," Noda agreed. "Dangerous alices like his own very often develop to be the strongest of alices, and it's not hard to imagine it triggering yours."

He held up another finger. "This brings us to another disadvantage: Mirror alices are hard to discover. It's not unusual for mirror alice wielders to enter the Academy so late."

"Doesn't it make her alice dangerous?" Tsubasa asked curiously. "An alice triggered so easily sounds risky, even to the one who owns it."

Noda shook his head. "Not quite. The mirror only did what it should have had: mirror an alice within its bounds. Inactivated alices are usually unsteady, so when Luna's alice came across a powerful one, it must have been readily set off."

He glanced at Luna. "This danger scarcely exists once you know the basics of controlling your ability, although it doesn't completely disappear. You will have to be very careful of the alices you use your alice on, especially if you don't know the extent of their potency."

She nodded. "Are there requirements or limits to what my alice can do?"

"Distance is one of the main concerns when using the mirror alice," Noda said. "A fixed characteristic of mirror alice that we've observed over time is the radius that it can cover – roughly two meters from its wielder. The alices you can mirror are limited to those within a two-meter radius from you."

"But she can use _all _ alices?" Misaki asked curiously.

"Technical alices are not within the scope of the mirror alice," Noda answered, and gave a little nod to Luna. "Their alices come from their knowledge, and even your alice can't claim any of them for yourself." He smiled. "It's like the saying that no one can steal your genius."

"That seems fair enough," she said, smiling. "So how long can I use an alice I've mirrored?"

"It depends on the shape of your ability," he said, explicating the four shapes of alices. "Mirror alices usually take the intermittent shape, which means you can only use the ability for a short period of time, although at a relatively high power."

"You're allowed to mirror the ability of a person only once within twenty-four hours, and this alice lasts for only about ten minutes in your possession," Noda added. "If, for example, you mirror my alice now, you'll only be allowed to do so again tomorrow, at this exact same time. Trying to mirror it again prior to the twenty-four hour rule is futile."

"Oh." She paused, furrowing her eyebrows thoughtfully. "Is there a specific number of alices that I can mirror in a given period of time?"

"You can use as many alices as you want," he said, "but you have to realize that the use of so many alices that differ in strength and shapes can be very exhausting. You're limited to what your body will allow you to use."

It was at this moment that Mikan raised her hand, making Noda and Luna turn to her. "Mikan?" Noda called out.

"Doesn't the nullification alice work on the mirror alice?" the young girl asked quietly.

Noda assumed a detective pose, as if remembering something. "I almost forgot about that." He smiled at his students. "The nullification alice works on all alices. There are no exceptions to this. However," he said, glancing at Luna, "the mirror alice has one unique characteristic."

Luna turned to Mikan, her eyes flashing with mischief. "The mirror alice can nullify a nullifying alice."

It took a moment before the younger girl could react. "It can _what_?" she repeated, disbelief written all over her face.

"Nullify a nullifying alice," Luna repeated, smiling with a touch of smugness.

"Nullify a nullifying alice," Tsubasa mumbled, exchanging glances with Misaki. "I didn't think that was even possible."

"It is," Luna said. "If I use my alice to mirror Mikan's before she nullifies mine, then _my _ nullifying alice can cancel Mikan's nullifying alice, so she can't use it."

Noda nodded his agreement. "I'm surprised you know of this already."

"I realized it only two weeks ago," she admitted to her stunned classmates. "It's not necessary that the alice I want to mirror is in use before I can mirror it, so I thought I'd try to mirror _and _nullify Mikan's alice to stop Jinno-sensei's – without stopping mine."

"I think I get it," Mikan whimpered, covering her face with both hands. "So Hotaru was right! I didn't nullify the alices, after all!" She looked very disheartened by what she learned, and Luna almost felt bad, if she cared enough.

Noda didn't seem put off by this. Instead he walked over to his younger student, an encouraging smile on his lips. "Cheer up, Mikan. It was all a matter of timing, and awareness of the alices at hand. It doesn't mean a flaw in your ability."

"It just means you'll have to be more conscious of the alices around you, and what they can do to your own. The coexistence of alices makes them an even more interesting thing to know about, and their interaction can bring the most terrible or the most excellent outcomes." He nodded. "You can look at this as a way to improve your alice, Mikan."

The young girl was still teary-eyed, but she seemed to accept this. "You're right, Noda-sensei. This is a lesson for me! I will definitely be more careful next time!"

Luna could only smile, admiring Noda's effortless encouragement. It wasn't hard to imagine that Mikan's alice would develop into something much more than what it was at the moment, with a teacher like Noda to guide her every step.

"So, Luna," Noda said, turning to her with a smile so cheerful it made it hard not to smile back at him.

"What do you say we put your alice to a test?"

۞۞۞

The forest clearing that they found revealed nothing of the mayhem that had occurred. It seemed very peaceful, and quiet; with the sun filtering through the high canopy and the occasional rabbits scurrying along the path.

"Will you explain what's going on?" Misaki finally asked, confusion making its way to his voice. He had been with Narumi ever since the latter called for help, and his own exasperation with the confusing events that had played out before him was starting to show.

Narumi let his gaze wander around the woods. "It's an invention of the Technical Types. It's a special prop that produces the most believable explosions and flames, which we use during plays and sometimes even during the Alice Festival. It lasts for seven minutes at most, although a wind alice can always put it off before it dies out by itself."

He stared at Subaru, who was looking up at a cherry blossom tree nearby. "There were no explosives. Just another genius invention, and perfect timing."

Subaru didn't seem to hear this. "Call for Luna Ishihara," he ordered instead, his face a mask of coldness.

"What is it?" one of the Student Representatives asked inquisitively. She craned her neck, taking a look at the tree that Subaru had been glaring at, and muttered an oath under her breath.

It didn't take long before Narumi and Misaki saw what had enraged them further. Hanging on the tree, tied to a branch, was a scrap of paper with a note.

_Gotcha,_ was what it said.

۞۞۞

"Nullify your alice?" Luna said hesitantly. She was pretty confident of her alice, but she rather liked Noda, and she wouldn't want for her alice to be the reason for him to be lost back in time again. "Where will you get sent to if I don't successfully copy Mikan's alice and cancel yours?"

"Oh, I don't know," Noda said, looking too unconcerned for his own good. It almost seemed like he was used to being everywhere – and at whatever point in time. "But that's part of the risk I have to take as your teacher."

"You make it sound so dramatic," Misaki teased, putting a hand on her waist as she turned to her new classmate. "He's just putting pressure on you."

"He always does that," Tsubasa agreed, taking a seat behind a desk. "I have a question, Noda-sensei. Does the strength of the alice Luna uses depend on the one whom she mirrors it from?"

Noda shook his head. "Not at all. The mirror alice only copies the alice; not the level of mastery of it. Luna takes an alice as her own when she mirrors it, so its strength depends on her as its wielder."

"That means the nullification alice I'll be using can either be stronger or weaker than Mikan's," she said, squaring her shoulders as she took her place beside the brunette.

"That's right."

She took a deep breath. "Ready when you are, Noda-sensei."

The teacher gave a final nod. "Now remember, Luna," he said, just as he started to fade from their sight, "the mirror alice – "

It was then that the door to the classroom suddenly opened behind him, interrupting them.

"I want to speak to Luna Ishihara," the imperious voice of Subaru Imai said as he stepped inside. He adjusted his glasses as soon as he saw everyone agape at him, apparently realizing that he picked the wrong time to storm in. "What's happening here?"

"We're having a class," Luna snapped as she darted an annoyed look at the Student Representative behind her teacher. "Now get out – "

"Luna, Noda-sensei's alice!" Mikan exclaimed in panic.

Luna blinked, cursing herself for being so distracted and careless. "Noda-sensei," she whispered earnestly, and made an instinctive leap for her teacher as she mirrored Mikan's alice to cancel his.

A few moments later, she found herself hugging Subaru, his eyebrows twitched dangerously as he looked down at her. "What the hell do you think are you doing?"

**…to be continued…**

* * *

Oh, Subaru is _pissed_. ;)

**Hilaire****  
08.31.09**


	11. Truth and Consequence

Happy to bring you an update after a long time. :D

* * *

**Lesson Eleven**

**Truth and Consequence**

"Oh dear," Noda muttered as he glanced around the vast expanse of sand before him. He cupped a hand above his eyes, squinting as he tried to see past the mirage created by the heat of the afternoon sun. "Luna's alice still needs _a lot_ of work."

**x ~ x ~ x**

"Get off me," Subaru Imai snapped, his voice pitched low in irritation.

Luna pulled away from the young man, barely paying heed to his anger as she turned back to the spot where Noda should have been standing. "Noda-sensei…" she whispered, tensing up when she realized that her teacher was gone. She raised her eyes to Mikan, who was still helplessly staring at the empty space, and then to Misaki and Tsubasa, who both flashed her an uncertain smile.

"He'll be okay," Tsubasa assured her, to which she responded with a grimace. She wasn't too sure if that made her feel any better, especially knowing that Noda had just recuperated from a terrible fever.

"What the hell is going on here?" Subaru asked, his sharp tone cutting through the silence that seemed to descend upon the room.

Mikan looked at him, speaking up timidly. "We – we were having a class."

"A class?" Subaru repeated oddly, like it was the last thing he expected to hear.

Luna frowned up at the young man, wondering what she could have done wrong this time. Subaru certainly looked even more pissed off than usual. His lips were pressed together into a thin line, a hand clenched at his side. "Of course. Why would we be here if we weren't having a class?"

Subaru seemed unimpressed, fixing his gaze on her. "Where were you a little past ten o'clock this morning?" he asked.

She flashed him a puzzled look, a bit surprised by the question that seemed to have come of nowhere. "Classes start at ten, so I was here, together with everyone else from Special Ability," she said, wondering if Subaru was trying to determine if she had been following his orders. "Punctuality has admittedly never been one of my strengths, but I'm truly interested in this class. I came here on time," she added, a touch of smugness in her tone.

Subaru narrowed his eyes. "How odd," he said, his voice coming out in a cold monotone. "Roughly two hundred students from across all levels confirm that you were in the lunchroom a little past ten o'clock this morning."

Luna's frown deepened, unsure where all of this was going. Now why would he say something strange like that? "I wasn't supposed to be late for class, so I dropped by the lunchroom to pick up a drink." She lifted an eyebrow. "That was at around nine-thirty, before I met up with Mikan."

One of the girls with Subaru stepped up, crossing her arms over her chest impatiently. "The reports we've been given tell us that you were in the lunchroom from around quarter to ten until ten-twenty, between which you pulled yet another stupid prank of yours."

Luna blinked, the words only serving to confuse her further. "A prank?" she asked, lifting her gaze to Subaru. "The reason you're asking me these things is because you think I pulled a prank this morning?" She knew that the Representatives didn't like her, but blaming her for something she didn't do was certainly not something she had expected from them. "What do you think I did this time?"

"We're absolutely certain you pulled a prank on us," the female representative snapped, with a slight tilt of her chin. "Around three hundred students in the lunchroom today testified that you were in the lunchroom this morning, making a countdown for the explosives that you set up to destroy the Northern Forest."

Luna was wordless as she switched her gaze from the young woman to Subaru, who remained quiet as he stared at her. "But I was only there for a short time and – " She frowned at them, starting to feel ridiculous. "And even if I was there, how does that prove that I set up the explosives in the Northern Forest?" Surely they couldn't be _that _ desperate to start making up stories, could they?

Subaru pushed his glasses up his nose. "Then I guess we'll just have to hear it from someone you spoke to in the lunchroom," he said sternly. Without giving her the chance to respond, he glanced over his shoulder. "You may come in now."

Luna was silent as she watched the door to the classroom open, feeling her breath hitch when she realized who it was. "N-Narumi-sensei…?"

**x ~ x ~ x**

"At ten o'clock this morning, a number of students confirm that they saw Luna Ishihara walk into the lunchroom. She took a seat near the windows, the ones overlooking the Northern Forest. At a little past ten, Narumi-sensei was seen speaking to her. Not too long into their conversation, Luna was overheard telling sensei about burning the forest to the ground. It's only a few minutes after this declaration that the explosives went off. This was heard all over the school."

The female student representative looked up from her notepad, squaring her shoulders as she finished her report. "That's what we've gathered so far. There are many students who can confirm seeing Luna in the lunchroom at around ten o'clock." She looked at Luna matter-of-factly. "As you might imagine, you've gained quite the reputation because of your little explosives ruse not too long ago." She gave a humorless smile. "My sincerest gratitude, Miss Ishihara. What you did in the past is really serving to our advantage."

Luna narrowed her eyes at the taunting, but decided it was the least of her concerns right now. Instead she looked over to Subaru Imai, who was currently seated behind his desk. The representatives had insisted that she went with them to their office, where they could continue their discussion. She had been too bewildered to protest against it – especially after Narumi confirmed the representatives' accusation.

"_I spoke to you in the lunchroom this morning, and you told me that you will burn Northern Forest to the ground."_

She glanced over to her teacher, who looked like he was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. He had refused to take a seat when they arrived in the office, and instead decided on standing at the sideline. His pretty face was etched with worry, and his posture was taut. The man was in a deep thought, if the distracted, distraught expression on his face was any indication.

She squared her shoulders, her mind already racing to sort out the information she had gathered so far. "That's all you have?" she asked. It was ridiculous, but she had heard and seen enough to know that Subaru had a case against her. Even without Narumi, the representatives had evidence – _too much_ evidence, in fact, that it was almost too insulting.

The gray-eyed alice took a slow, deep breath, trying to calm her rising temper. This was starting to get irritating. She could deal with the Student Representatives and those snide remarks from Subaru's underlings, but more than that – and this was really infuriating her to no end –

They actually had the audacity to blame her for something so sloppily executed _and _ think they could get away with it.

_What an insult. _ They couldn't even give her more credit than this.

Luna crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly. "A few students _overheard _ me claiming that I'm going to set Northern Forest on fire?" She huffed. "I don't think people who listen in on other's conversations are very reliable."

The female representative looked at her irritably. "Between them and you, I'd believe them."

Subaru held up a hand, as if he didn't like how the conversation was progressing. "Let's not get carried away," he said, throwing a warning glance at the other representative before focusing his gaze on Luna. "Aside from everything that has been said, I believe our strongest piece of evidence against you is Narumi-sensei's statement – when you spoke to him this morning." At this he looked over to the blond teacher, who had been quiet ever since. "Narumi-sensei?"

Narumi's face was somber, his shoulders tense. "It's just like I said a while ago." A vague expression of confusion and concern slowly made its way to his pretty face, and he flashed Luna a small, uncertain smile. "You spoke to me about what you were planning on doing right before the explosion happened."

Luna furrowed her eyebrows, feeling slightly puzzled. She held his gaze for a second longer than necessary, wondering if her teacher had been given instructions not to volunteer information. She couldn't be too sure, but Narumi looked like he wanted to say more… but couldn't.

Finding nothing wrong in going with her gut instinct, the young woman squared her shoulders. "That's a little strange," she said, quirking an eyebrow thoughtfully. "I have the entire Special Ability class to confirm that I was with them during the time that this silly little prank was pulled on you."

"That's right!" a voice from behind her agreed.

Luna glanced over to Mikan, having almost forgotten that the girl was also in the room. Together with Misaki and Tsubasa, the brunette had insisted on coming with Luna to the office, telling the gray-eyed alice that she would help if she could.

"Luna has been with us even before ten o'clock this morning! I should know, because I was the one who fetched her from her room and walked with her to our class!" Mikan added. "Even if you ask everyone – I'm sure they'll confirm what I'm saying!"

"I have to agree with Mikan," Misaki said, putting a hand over Mikan's shoulder as she took a step forward. "The two of them arrived together for the welcome party our class prepared for Luna."

Tsubasa scratched his cheek sheepishly. "This would have been so much easier if Noda-sensei was here."

Subaru lifted an eyebrow at this piece of information. "Noda-sensei?"

"He was with us a little before you arrived. He was trying to teach me the basics of my alice," Luna explained. "He was in the welcome party, too, but just a while ago we couldn't stop his alice, and he disappeared somewhere again." She gave a slight nod of her head. "I'm sure he would have been able to confirm what we're saying."

Subaru looked at her carefully, a smirk tugging the corner of his lips. "If Noda-sensei confirms what you're saying, that will mean Narumi-sensei is lying about having spoken to you, won't it?"

The calculated question made everyone in the room pause. Luna arched an eyebrow at Subaru. "Lying…?" she murmured, unsure why the word suddenly sounded important. She didn't know why, but the younger man's question actually made her think. _Lying,_ she repeated to herself, ignoring the sudden agitation in her chest as she tried to consider the facts presented before her.

She let her gaze stray to her teacher, looking at but barely seeing him as she sank deeper into her contemplation. If there was one thing she was certain of, it was that Narumi would never purposely lie about something like this. The man was too kind for that, and she was almost too sure that he enjoyed looking after her far more than he would ever care to admit.

Or maybe she was just flattering herself.

The young woman shook her head, incredulous that she could be distracted by silly thoughts at a time like this. She looked down to her lap, fiddling with the hem of her skirt as she tried to concentrate. There was something about this puzzle that wasn't quite right. _I'm telling the truth, _she told herself. _I was with the Special Ability students during the time he says I was with him. _

She sat up, feeling restless as she considered looking at things from the perspective of the representatives. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they weren't particularly fond of her, but it was also unlikely that they were simply pinning the blame on her because of that. Their accusation had to have a solid ground, which in this case was Narumi's statement.

She looked over to her teacher once more, and this time found him staring right back at her, nodding as though he was encouraging her. Subaru took Narumi's words as true not only because he was a teacher, but because several hundred students could back up his claim – which meant those students had to have seen this Luna Ishihara, too. But the only way for this to be true when she was actually with Special Ability was if –

…_there was another Luna Ishihara in the lunchroom? _ she thought, the mere idea of it making her frown. She knew it was far from impossible, but it still sounded ridiculous, even to her ears. Why would anyone go through that much trouble just to frame her up?

_Unless…_

The young woman pressed her lips together into a thin line, meeting Subaru's intent glare from his swivel chair. "Now that you brought that up," she started, trying to sort out the theory she was rapidly stringing together in her head.

"What if I told you that we're both telling the truth?"

**x ~ x ~ x**

Narumi watched one of the female representatives step forward, throwing Luna a fierce glare. "And what exactly do you mean by saying you and Narumi-sensei are both telling the truth?" she asked, her voice having a sharp edge to it. This was turning out to be far more complicated than any of them could have expected it would be.

The alice under scrutiny lean back against her seat, as if reciting the words in her head before uttering them out loud. The playful smirk on her lips was enough to tell Narumi that she had already figured this one out – and someone was going to pay.

"I don't believe Narumi-sensei has any reason to lie about something like this," Luna started, glancing over to him briefly before turning back to the representatives. "Aside from this, I believe you told me that he has several hundred students to confirm what he's saying."

"That's right," Subaru agreed monotonously.

Luna nodded, looking quite satisfied so far. "On the other hand, I'm telling you the exact opposite: that I was not in the lunchroom during the time he claims I was. I also have people who can confirm what I'm saying." She held up two fingers. "There are two ways we can go about this. One is what you've been doing so far – to assume that one of us is lying. In that case, this is going to be very complicated, because it will be his word against mine. Even if you don't believe me or my classmates about this, we only have to wait until Noda-sensei returns, so he can corroborate what I'm telling you."

The young woman lifted her chin, a touch of smugness in her voice when she spoke. "The second one is a little unorthodox: You will have to assume that Narumi-sensei and I are both telling the truth. This means you will have to accept that I was with the Special Ability class _and _ I was talking to Narumi-sensei _at the same time_."

An indignant silence. "…_what_?"

Luna shrugged, unperturbed. "Like I said. Unorthodox."

"That's impossible," Megumi Ryuunen protested. Narumi remembered that the young woman had been the most furious during their inspection of the Northern Forest earlier this morning. "One of you would have to be lying – "

"I don't think it's right to dismiss something as impossible just because you don't agree with it," Luna interjected. "This is Alice Academy, and impossible no longer exists when you have alices that can accomplish much more than what normal human effort can. What I'm telling you is possible and reasonable. I'm actually a little surprised you didn't think of this much earlier." She smiled, a little two sweet for comfort. "Then again, why would you, when you've already decided I'm guilty?"

"Why you – "

"You think that an alice was behind this," the other female representative said calmly, raising a hand to silence the other.

"I _know _ that an alice is behind this," Luna said. "There is no way you can reconcile two conflicting truths unless you accept that fact. It's an alice that can duplicate something – _someone_, even – and therefore allow it to exist in two places at the same time."

Subaru pushed his glasses up his nose, his face remaining a perfect mask of indifference. "And how do we know it's not you who used this alice to throw us off? Your alice grants you the ability to copy any other as you wish."

Luna laughed, sounding almost derisive. "You insult me with that question, Subaru." The young woman tilted her head thoughtfully. "If it was me and I truly didn't want you to find out it was all my doing, do you think I would have left so many evidences against myself in the first place?" She smiled, mischief flashing in her eyes. "If and when I do pull off something you don't like, I'll let you know it's me, but I won't let you have any way of proving it."

A heavy silence ruled over the room in the next several moments that followed. Narumi himself was quiet, Luna's words reminding him just why the Academy was investing time and resources to watch over her in the first place: With her scheming mind alone, Luna Ishihara was already an individual to reckon with. He could only imagine what sort of trouble she could stir with her alice if she really wanted to.

"_We'd like you to keep an eye on a very promising alice, Narumi-sensei."_

Narumi shook away the memory of a few months ago, trying to concentrate on the matter at hand. Luna was presenting a very convincing case, but she still hadn't been able to prove anything. Subaru himself looked as though he was willing to give this another thought, but it didn't mean he was going to let Luna off that easily – at least, not until he got his hands on the real culprit. What had happened was a bother and an insult to the representatives and their office, and Narumi doubted Subaru would simply overlook that.

As if reading the teacher's thoughts, Subaru Imai sat up, if only a little more rigidly this time. It didn't take a genius to figure out how displeased the young man was. "If I consider your theory, Miss Ishihara," he finally said, earning anxious glances from the other representatives standing next to him, "that means there's a person in the Academy that framed you." He put his arms on top of his desk, intertwining his fingers thoughtfully. "Someone had to have copied you and executed that nasty little prank, thinking he or she could get away with it."

Luna nodded. "Yes."

Subaru heaved a quiet sigh of finality. "I don't really care whether it's you or another person, but I'd like to find out who was behind all of this as soon as possible," he said. "I've heard all that you have to say the matter, and I suppose there's no harm in looking into what you've brought to our attention," he added, unmindful of the surprised looks from the two girls standing on either side of him.

"Subaru – "

The young man didn't even pause to blink, his somber stare still fixed on Luna. "You understand, of course, that this does not mean you're no longer under suspicion."

Narumi shoved a hand inside his pocket, unsurprised. Just as expected from Subaru Imai.

Across the room, Luna didn't seem at all surprised herself. "I can live with that," she agreed, before flashing a cunning little smile. "After all, what fun is a chase without anything at stake?"

******x ~ x ~ x**

Luna stretched her arms and yawned. "I'm exhausted," she groaned.

It was almost half an hour since she and the student representatives finally agreed on how they would find out who was behind the explosion in the Northern Forest. Subaru Imai had been surprisingly easy to talk to, but he had been firm about how they would not be helping Luna in the investigation.

"_The Office of the Student Representatives is an independent body. While we have direct orders to get to the bottom of this issue to the best of our ability, it does not include helping you prove your innocence," Subaru said, his expression as if turning grimmer by the second. "I hope that's fair enough. After all, you're still one of our suspects."_

_Luna only shrugged, as if she had expected that. "I understand. Let's conduct our independent investigations, then."_

"_Twenty-four hours," Subaru agreed, making both Narumi and Luna stop. "I'm giving both of us twenty-four hours to find who was behind this and finally get to the bottom of this fiasco."_

"You should take a rest," Narumi offered quietly, walking a few steps behind his student. He had offered to walk the young woman to her dormitory after Mikan, Tsubasa and Misaki left them to go back to their classes. "I know Subaru only gave you twenty-four hours to find the real culprit, but – "

"It's fine," Luna interrupted, glancing over to him frankly. "I've only been here for a month. It's not that hard to figure out who would want to frame me up for some stupid trick like this. This should be fairly easy."

Narumi halted his tracks. "Oh," he simply said, inwardly frowning at his own awkwardness. He knew he did nothing wrong, but he still felt strangely guilty, knowing it was his testimony that got his student in trouble. "I'm sorry."

Luna blinked at this, stopping mid-step to glance back at him. "Huh?"

"I knew it wasn't you in the lunchroom, but I had to tell Subaru about it," Narumi said, the words tumbling out of his lips faster than he could have ever thought possible. "I'm sorry for making you look like it was your fault, when I knew it wasn't."

The next few moments was quiet, with Luna simply staring at her teacher with an odd expression of surprise. Narumi shifted in his place, unsure if he said something wrong. "Are you… are you angry?" he prompted, confused.

Luna lifted an eyebrow, a small smile tugging the corners of her lips. "Not really, no. It's just that…" She stepped closer to him, her eyes flashing with amusement. "I think you're the first adult to ever say sorry to me, is all."

It was Narumi's turn to be surprised. "I'm not sure I follow?" he asked, scratching his nape sheepishly. What exactly did Luna even mean by what she said? _ Don't people usually say sorry when they do something wrong?_

The student chose to shake her head instead. "I just remembered something from a while back," she said, before grinning up at him. "It's okay, Narumi-sensei. You just had to do what you had to do, as a teacher. I'm not angry at all."

Narumi smiled back at her. "If there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to tell me, all right?"

Luna tilted her head to one side contemplatively, looking as if she was thinking through that offer and weighing her choices. "I hope that's not a rhetorical question, Narumi-sensei, because I think you might actually be able to help me."

Narumi blinked. Well, he certainly didn't expect that. "Really?" he asked, wondering what was going on in Luna's mind at that moment. The young woman certainly give the impression that she was scheming again – something that could mean well or badly, depending on who looked at it.

Luna gave a slow, deliberate nod, her eyes flashing with unmistakable mischief. "_Really_."

**…to be continued…**

* * *

**Hilaire | ****05.26.13**


End file.
